


The Greatest Love Story Ever Told

by WhenTheCanonShootsOnlyBlanks



Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F, Fluff, Kid!Fic, as in they are kids, mostly - Freeform, they do not have any
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-13
Updated: 2016-10-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 13:09:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 41,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6240559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhenTheCanonShootsOnlyBlanks/pseuds/WhenTheCanonShootsOnlyBlanks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Elena had never abandoned Rafael but just divorced Emilio to marry Rose's dad? And what if through the shared custody agreement Luisa and Rose had met when they were only ten years old? How different would their lives be?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! 
> 
> So I have decided to start a new multi-chapter fic (yes, I know, stupid move if you already have writer's block) but this idea just wouldn't leave me alone. I just needed more details about Rose and Luisa's childhood and as canon isn't going to give us those anytime soon, I am making up my own.
> 
> So while I have taken some liberties with names (Rose is Rose, I am not calling her Clara. Ever. Clarisa is a cute shipname though), hair-colors (Rose is a natural redhead, fight me) and ages (they are the same age otherwise it would be creepy later on) I will mostly stick to canon. Except for the fact they knew each other of course. 
> 
> I hope you like it, enjoy!

She watched the houses on the side of the road flit by as she drew figures in the condensation on the window. She didn’t know why she had to be here or why she had to wear a dress; Elena was not her mother and she and her father had gotten a divorce over a year ago.

‘She was your mother for a bit, too,’ Emilio reminded her when she had brought up not wanting to go to the wedding for the first time. And he had been right, for four years Elena had been her mother. But they had never really bonded and Luisa didn’t like her and she had the feeling the dislike was mutual.

Her brother, sitting in the car seat next to her was very excited about his mother’s wedding. But he was five so what did he know?

‘Luisa?’ Rafael asked as he toyed with the collar of his shirt, he was all dressed up and looked adorable. ‘Will there be cake?’

‘Yeah, Raf, there will be cake, and candy, and lots of people in pretty dresses,’ Luisa said, she only vaguely remembered her father’s wedding to Elena, she had only been six at that time. But she was sure there had been a lot of food.

Rafael clapped his hands together excitedly. ‘Yay! Cake!’ he said happily. ‘Are we there yet, daddy? I want cake.’

‘Almost there,’ Emilio said, smiling at them through the rearview mirror.

Luisa noticed he didn’t look as happy as he pretended to be. She remembered the first few months after Elena left, her father had been gone a lot and when he _was_ home, he would be sad. She had been alone a lot, too. Whenever their father went somewhere, Rafael always went to Elena and while her little brother may be annoying sometimes. She missed him when he wasn’t there. She knew she could go to Elena’s house too, but she never wanted to. So she stayed at home with their nanny.

* * *

‘Keep an eye on your brother for me, okay?’ Emilio said as he kissed her on the cheek, ready to get back into the car. He wasn’t staying for the service, only dropping them off and picking them up later.

Luisa nodded, she always kept an eye on her little brother. She may not like Elena but she loved Rafael, and she saw it as her duty to protect him.

She grabbed Rafael’s hand as they walked into the church together, the first part of a wedding was always boring, but the party after would be fun. That was where the cake was.

‘Rafael!’ a man said as they approached, he was wearing a black suit with a white flower on his lapel. Luisa had never met him but she knew from pictures it was Sam, Elena’s new husband. ‘You look so handsome, buddy!’ he said, ruffling Rafael’s hair and making him giggle.

‘And you must be Luisa. I’ve heard a lot about you,’ Sam said as he extended his hand.

Luisa shook it, doing exactly as her father taught her.

‘Firm handshake,’ Sam said. ‘I like it.’

Luisa smiled, she might actually like Sam. A bit.

‘Come let me show you to your places. All the way at the front.’ he said, taking Rafael’s other hand and walking them to the front.

‘Rose,’ Sam said as they approached the first of the wooden benches.

A girl in a green dress looked up from the pad of paper in her lap. She had a head full of red curls and a lot of cute freckles around her nose. Luisa estimated her to be around her own age.

Rafael mentioned his step-sister-to-be sometimes, but he didn’t know a lot about her. But he was only five so Luisa didn’t think anything of it.

‘Luisa, this is my daughter, Rose,’ Sam said. ‘Rose, this is Luisa, Rafael’s sister.’

‘Hi!’ Luisa said, waving awkwardly at the other girl, she was really very pretty.

‘Hi,’ Rose said, immediately looking back to her drawing pad.

‘I have to go back over there,’ Sam said, pointing over his shoulder at the door, which plenty of other people were still coming through. ‘You three will be okay, right?’ Sam asked.

‘Yes, dad,’ Rose said, smiling softly.

Luisa sat down next to Rose, helping Rafael climb onto the bench next to her.

‘Lu, where’s mommy?’ Rafael said.

‘She is getting dressed,’ Luisa said. ‘She will be here soon so she can marry Sam,’

That seemed to satisfy Rafael and he continued to swing his legs off the bench and looking around the church in amazement.

‘That is very pretty,’ Luisa said as she looked at the drawing Rose was making of the vase of flowers a few feet in front of them.

‘Thank you,’ Rose said, looking up briefly and in that flash Luisa saw the bluest eyes she had ever seen.

‘How old are you?’ Luisa asked, maybe she and Rose could be friends and then she wouldn’t be so alone when she had to go to Elena’s house.

‘Ten,’ Rose said, not looking up from her drawing.

‘I’m eleven,’ Luisa said, watching as Rose’s hands moved over the paper, adding more flowers to the bouquet.

When it became apparent Rose wasn’t going to respond to that, Luisa joined Rafael in looking around the church in wonder.

It was really beautiful and there were lots of women in pretty dresses, but Luisa didn’t know any of them. There weren’t any other children, just the three of them, and Rafael’s baby brother, Derek. But he was still very tiny and a woman on a bench on the other side of the aisle was holding him, trying to quiet him as he cried.

Eventually, Luisa lost interest in looking around the church and focused her attention back on Rose.

‘Hey,’ she said, waiting for Rose to look up at her, getting another flash of those brilliant blue eyes. ‘Can I have one of your papers?’

Rose nodded, flipping forwards a few pages and tearing off a fresh sheet of paper. ‘Why do you need it?’ Rose asked curiously, watching Luisa with renewed interest.

‘Just wait,’ Luisa smiled, folding it into a triangle and tearing of the bit that was still sticking out. Rose watched her with interest as she folded the flower out of a white sheet of paper, presenting it to Rose when she was done.

‘There, for you,’ she said, holding the origami rose out to the girl next to her.

‘Thank you,’ Rose smiled, gingerly taking the flower from Luisa, turning it around in her hands, admiring it from all angles before putting it down on the bench next to her.

‘Luisa…’ Rafael whined, tugging on her dress. ‘Can you make me a flower too?’

‘Yeah, of course. If Rose wants to give me another piece of paper,’ Luisa said, smiling questioning up at Rose who didn’t hesitate to tear off another sheet from her drawing pad, handing it to Luisa.

‘Could you teach me?’ Rose asked, a shy smile lighting up her face.

‘Of course.’ Luisa smiled, turning towards Rose on the bench, putting the sheet of paper in between them so Rose could see.

‘So you just start like this…’ Luisa said, walking Rose through the steps of folding an origami rose slowly.

‘Now you try!’ Luisa said excitedly to Rose, handing the flower to her brother who happily clapped his hands.

Luisa laughed as Rafael tried to stick the flower on his lapel like Sam had but it wouldn’t stick.

‘Here,’ Luisa said, taking a pin out of her hair and poking a tiny hole in the side of the flower and pinning it on Rafael’s breast pocket. ‘Now you look just like Sam,’ Luisa said as Rafael beamed proudly.

‘Can I have your rose, Rose?’ Luisa said, making the other girl laugh as she handed the paper flower back to Luisa.

Luisa took another pin out of her hair, once again pricking a tiny hole in the side, only this time she slid the flower into Rose’s hair.

‘That looks good on you!’ Luisa said and she felt her own smile grow bigger as Rose smiled back at her.

Rose tore off another sheet of paper and mimicked Luisa’s earlier movements. The first rose didn’t turn out as well as Luisa’s had, but with some encouragement to keep practicing, Rose was soon producing perfect flowers.

They were still folding white paper roses when the music started to play, announcing it was finally time to begin with the ceremony.

Luisa put the roses on one big pile as she turned around with the rest of the people there to look at Elena in her white dress.

Luisa had to admit she looked really pretty and happy, she had never seen Elena smile that wide.

As Elena approached, Rafael slipped off his seat to go and give his mother a hug.

‘Raf!’ Luisa whispered, catching him by his arm. ‘You can go say hi later, just watch now for now.’

Rafael looked like he was about to protest and quite possible cry, but he calmed down a bit when Luisa pulled him into her lap.

They watched the rest of the service in silence, Rafael watching his mother with rapt fascination.

Luisa wrinkled her nose at the kiss, Rose next to her doing the same. Kisses were weird and she didn’t like them.

After that, they followed the happy couple out of the church, Rafael sprinting away from her to go say hi to his mother. She let him, the service was over and he was too far away already.

‘That was beautiful,’ Luisa said, helping Rose gather the dozen or so flowers they had made.

‘It was,’ Rose said. ‘Have you ever been to a wedding before?’

‘Yeah, when I was six and my father married Elena,’ Luisa said. ‘I liked this one better, she was smiling more.’

‘I have never seen her smile that much,’ Rose said softly, carrying the flowers on the drawing pad she clutched to her chest.

‘She doesn’t smile at home either?’ Luisa asked.

‘Only when my dad is in the room. Or when Rafael or Derek are there.’

Luisa nodded, she understood that feeling, but she wasn’t going to let that bother her right now. The best part of the wedding was still in front of them.

‘Let’s go! They have cake. I love cake,’ Luisa said, smiling widely at Rose, who smiled back at her.

* * *

After all the speeches and other grown-up stuff was over, it was finally time for cake. And Sam came over to their table with big slices for all of them.

‘How did you like it, Rosie?’ Sam asked, kissing his daughter on the cheek.

‘It was beautiful, dad. You both looked really happy,’ Rose said, smiling warmly at her father.

‘I am really happy. I am very happy you got to be here.’

‘Me too,’ Rose said.

‘And what did you think, Luisa?’ Sam asked, smiling at her as well.

‘I liked it, it was really beautiful,’ Luisa smiled. ‘I liked the dress.’

‘I liked the dress, too,’ Sam winked.

‘Hello girls,’ Elena said as she approached their table, holding Rafael by the hand, the white paper rose still pinned on his jacket.

‘Hi,’ Rose and Luisa chorused.

‘Your dress is really pretty,’ Luisa said.

‘Thank you, Luisa,’ Elena smiled, never as wide as she smiled at Rafael. ‘You both look beautiful as well,’ she continued, taking Sam’s hand and leading him away from the table, Rafael following them.

So Rose and Luisa were once again left alone at the table.

‘Here,’ Luisa said, sliding the bigger slice of cake towards Rose.

‘Thank you,’ Rose smiled. ‘I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this wedding, but you’re nice. I like you.’

‘I like you, too,’ Luisa smiled, taking a bite of her own slice of cake. She hadn’t expected to enjoy the wedding either, but now she had a new friend she might not mind going over to Elena’s place whenever her father was out of town.

‘Do you live with your dad and Elena?’

‘Only the weekends. I live with my mom the rest of the week.’

‘Just the two of you?’

‘Yeah. Just me and my mom,’ Rose said, smiling sadly.

‘Well, you have a really big family in the weekends. With Elena and Rafael and Derek and your dad,’ Luisa said, she wanted Rose’s real smile back, the one that made her face light up and her eyes sparkle.

‘I do,’ Rose smiled, a little wider this time, and Luisa smiled in response. ‘What do you do when Rafael is at Elena’s?’ Rose asked.

‘I stay at home, with my dad if he is there, and with the nanny otherwise,’ Luisa said. ‘Sometimes I go to my grandma, but she’s very old, but also very nice.’

Rose nodded. ‘What grade are you in?

‘Fifth,’ Luisa said, happy Rose was becoming less shy around her and talking more.

‘Me too,’ Rose smiled. ‘What is your favorite subject?’

‘I like everything,’ Luisa shrugged. ‘It’s all fun. I like reading stuff and learning new things.’

‘I like art,’ Rose said softly. ‘But Elena says that is not a real subject, and I like all the others too. Especially math.’

‘Of course art is a real subject! You get a grade for it, don’t you?’ Luisa said. ‘And you are really good at it so I bet you have the highest grade in your class.’

Rose blushed a little. ‘Thank you.’

‘Can I see some of your other drawings?’ Luisa asked, pushing her empty plate away from her to make room for Rose’s drawing pad.

Rose thought it over for a moment but instead of handing her drawings over to Luisa like she had expected, Rose jumped off her chair and pulled it up to the other side of the table so she was sitting right next to Luisa. She shyly opened her sketchbook on the first page, telling Luisa what the drawing was about.

The more drawings Luisa saw, the more enthusiastic she became, and the more she said she loved the drawings the wider Rose smiled. When Luisa had seen all the drawings, they started discussing other hobbies. And Luisa found she and Rose had a lot in common.

Eventually the party around them wound down but they were still talking about the things they liked to do.

When Luisa saw her father coming through the door, she waved at him but he didn’t see her. First walking towards Sam and Elena to congratulate them, picking Rafael up and putting him up his shoulders, making him squeal with delight.

‘That’s my dad,’ Luisa said to Rose. ‘I have to go now, I think.’

‘Okay,’ Rose said. ‘Here, you should have this.’ she said, tearing another page out of her sketchbook. It was the drawing of the flowers she had made earlier that day during the ceremony.

Luisa beamed. ‘Thank you!’ Luisa said, giving Rose a quick hug to show her she meant it. ‘I hope to see you again soon. I will bring you that book I talked about.’

‘I would like that,’ Rose smiled, clutching her sketchbook to her chest.

‘See you!’ Luisa waved as she ran over to her father, looking back over her shoulder at Rose who was standing all alone in the big ballroom, the white paper rose still tucked between her red curls.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who made a deadline for the first time in weeks? Me! Yay! Suck it writer's block. I am done with you.
> 
> This chapter is an emotional one, so I suggest getting some tissues. I hope you still like it though. I just have a lot of feelings about these two.
> 
> Enjoy!

Luisa watched the sky with growing concern as the car turned the corner onto Elena’s street. It was the middle of the afternoon in summer, but the dark grey clouds made it appear much later in the day. On top of that the wind had picked up and was whipping the leaves on the trees into a frenzy.

‘It’s just rain. It’s just rain,’ Luisa repeated softly to herself as her father parked the car on Elena’s driveway. ‘Nothing to be scared about, just rain.’

‘Do you have to go?’ Luisa said, wrapping her arms tightly around her father’s middle, hiding her tears in his shirt. She never liked it when her father left and dropped her off at Elena’s, but with the storm coming, her stomach was twisting itself into knots with fear. She didn’t want her dad to go. Not now.

‘I am sorry, sweetheart,’ Emilio said, bending down to his daughter’s level. ‘I have to go for my work.’

 ‘But I’ll miss you,’ Luisa cried, not letting go of her father’s hand, trying to get him to stay.

‘I’ll miss you too, sweetheart,’ Emilio said. ‘But I have to go now.’ he said, giving her one last kiss on her forehead before stepping out into the rain. Taking the hand of his newest girlfriend and getting back into the car.

‘Luisa, come in,’ Elena said, resting her hand lightly on her shoulders as she tried to steer her through the door. ‘You’ll get all wet.’

But Luisa didn’t budge, watching the taillights of her father’s car disappear around the corner as tears rolled down her cheeks. She then let Elena lead her inside, feeling sad and alone in the big, strange house.

‘Why’s Luisa crying, mommy?’ Rafael asked, gently taking Luisa’s hand as he stared up at her with those big brown eyes.

Well, not completely alone. Rafael was here. But he didn’t understand. He had his mother and Sam, she didn’t have anyone.

‘She misses your father, sweetheart,’ Elena said, lifting Rafael up, putting him on her hip.

‘Oh,’ Rafael said. ‘But he will be back soon! And I am here! We can play if you want to!’ Rafael said excitedly. He never really seemed to miss their father when he was away on business.

Luisa smiled briefly at her little brother, trying to let him know she would play with him later. Elena was wrong. She didn’t miss her father. Well, she missed him a little, but she would never cry about that. He went away so often, it was kind of normal by now. But she didn’t like it when he left when it stormed. It brought back bad memories of when she was little and watched the storms rage outside from his lap.

Elena and Rafael walked into the kitchen and Luisa headed to the living room, curling up on the couch with her backpack. She tried to ignore the rain pounding on the windows as she took out her favorite book. Reading usually helped to calm her down.

Not this time. Outside, it was like all the water in the world was raining down and being blown against the big window of the living room by the wind that was pulling harshly at the branches of the palm trees lining the street.

The only thing that made her feel a little better was when Rose and Sam came barreling through the door, both laughing loudly as the rain had completely drenched them in the ten seconds it took them to walk from the car to the front door.

Elena told them to stay in the hallway as she went upstairs to fetch some towels to avoid the two of them dripping all over the carpet.

Rose’s smile got even wider when she spotted Luisa on the couch, waving at her happily. The wedding had been two months ago and this was the first time they saw each other.

Luisa couldn’t help but smile back. Rose’s hair was all wet and plastered to her face but she was still very pretty.

Luisa finally calmed down a bit as Rose toweled her hair face dry and came to join her on the couch.

‘Hey,’ Luisa said.

‘Hey,’ Rose said, a single drop of water rolling down her forehead.

Luisa reached up and wiped it away.

‘Thank you,’ Rose smiled, looking down at her hands.

‘I brought you the book,’ Luisa said, not having forgotten the promise she made to Rose at the wedding. She handed Rose her favorite book, she had never lend it to anyone before but she knew Rose would be careful with it.

‘Thank you so much,’ Rose said, smiling gratefully as she accepted the book from Luisa, immediately turning it over to read the back.

Luisa watched her with interest as Rose’s eyes lit up a she read the short summary.

‘Have you seen your room yet?’ Rose asked, hugging the book to her chest.

Luisa shook her head, she hadn’t really been in the mood to go exploring the house on her own. But now Rose was here…

‘Want me to show you?’ Rose asked, smiling warmly at her.

‘Yeah, I haven’t seen much of the house,’ Luisa said, offering Rose her hand so she could pull her up off the couch.

Rose accepted the offered hand and Luisa pulled her up with a little too much force so they bumped into each other. Rose laughed and Luisa noticed the small dimples in the corners of her mouth when she did so.

‘Come on!’ Rose said, excitedly leading Luisa up the stairs, away from the storm brewing outside.

There was absolutely no need for Luisa to have her own room in Elena’s house, she was rarely there, but the house was so big and empty everyone could have two bedrooms if they wanted.

Rose was a great tour guide, showing her what was behind every door on the second floor. She was still holding Luisa’s hand and it helped her feel a little less out of place in the big house.

‘And this is your room,’ Rose said as she opened a door at the end of the hallway. Luisa smiled. It was far away from Elena’s room, but it was right across the hall from Rose’s. They hadn’t been there yet. But the drawing on the door made it very clear who the occupant was.

The room was nearly empty with only a bed and a desk, no personal touches at all. Luisa didn’t care, she wouldn’t be spending a lot of time there anyway.

‘I, uhm, made this for you,’ Rose said, walking to the desk and picking up a sheet of paper, no, a drawing. ‘Because your room is quite empty and boring and I thought it could use some color,’ Rose said, smiling shyly at Luisa as she handed her the drawing.

It was a drawing of a bouquet of flowers painted in with vibrant colors. It reminded Luisa a bit off the floral drawing Rose had done at the wedding, but this bouquet had different, colorful flowers in it.

‘Thank you!’ Luisa smiled, giving Rose a hug as a thank you. ‘It is really pretty! I love it!’ Luisa said, the storm outside fading even further to the background as she thought about how Rose had probably spent lots of time making this just for her.

‘I’m glad you like it,’ Rose smiled shyly at the ground, obviously not used to the attention her drawing got.

Luisa was still smiling as she sought a good place to put the drawing. She settled on hanging it right across from her bed so it would be the first thing she saw when she woke up in the morning.

‘Do you have any tape?’ Luisa asked Rose, already having climbed onto a chair so she could hold the drawing to the wall.

Rose nodded. ‘I have some in my room.’

‘Let’s go get it,’ Luisa said, jumping off the chair and placing the drawing on the desk, following Rose to the other side of the hallway.

Rose’s room had a lot more personal touches than hers. The parts of the walls that weren’t covered with posters and drawings were painted the same mint green as Rose’s dress at the wedding had been.

Luisa was admiring Rose’s drawings when a branch or something hit the window with a loud clang and made her flinch

Rose, who had just found what she was looking for, immediately rushed to Luisa’s side as she saw the fear on Luisa’s face.

She had heard the clang too, but the branches of the tree outside her room always hit against the windows when it stormed.

‘It was just the tree. Because of the storm,’ Rose pointed out, not knowing that was exactly what Luisa was afraid of.

Luisa swallowed hard, she shouldn’t be scared of storms, it was stupid and childish.

‘Luisa?’ Rose asked, noticing Luisa’s fearful eyes as she stared out of the window. ‘Are you okay?’ The words hadn’t left her mouth or a bright flash of lightning lit up the room.

Luisa screwed her eyes shut and covered her ears, not wanting to hear the clap of the thunder that would soon follow. But it didn’t help, she could still hear it and she shrunk into herself as she tried not to remember.

‘Luisa?’ Rose questioned, her hand squeezing Luisa’s shoulder softly, her voice laced with concern. ‘It’s just lightening. Nothing to be scared of,’ Rose tried, sitting down next to Luisa as she slid to the ground.

Luisa didn’t respond, she kept her eyes closed and her ears covered, but it made no difference. She could still see and hear the storm outside. But she could also still hear Rose softly talking next to her, trying to calm her down.

‘When I was younger, I used to be scared of lightning, too. It was loud and dangerous. But then my dad told be how it works. And that it is just hot and cold air mixing together which creates electricity and that is lighting. And while you should stay away from trees and other tall things during a lightning storm. We are totally safe inside. Okay?’ Rose asked, squeezing Luisa’s hand softly.

Luisa opened her eyes to look at Rose, she knew how lightning worked and she wasn’t scared of it as much as she just hated it. Another flash of lightning illuminated the room and Luisa closed her eyes again. Hoping it would soon pass.

Rose sat beside her in silence for a while before jumping up, letting go of Luisa’s hand in the process.

Luisa didn’t know where Rose had gone, she had her eyes closed and she was still covering her ears. But suddenly she heard loud music coming from the other side of the room.

She opened her eyes and noticed Rose was closing the curtains.

Rose smiled softly as she met Luisa’s eyes. ‘Now you can’t see the lightning and can’t hear the thunder,’ Rose said loudly, having to overpower the music.

Rose sat back down next to Luisa, shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip. They were silent for a few minutes as Luisa noticed that she could indeed no longer hear the rain and the thunder and could no longer see the lightning. She could just pretend it wasn’t there.

‘It’s okay to be scared,’ Rose said softly as Luisa’s tears dried. ‘I am scared a lot too.’

‘I – I am not scared of the storm,’ Luisa sniffed. ‘It is just… Something _bad_ happened during a storm.’

‘Oh,’ Rose said, turning her head so she could look at Luisa. ‘Do you want to talk about it? When I am afraid my father always says that sharing your fears makes them less powerful. But he might be lying. Because I am still very afraid of spiders,’ Rose said, the thought alone making her shiver.

‘My – my mother used to say the same thing. I think,’ Luisa said, more tears making their way down her cheeks as she remembered her mother. Or more tried to. She found it harder and harder to recall the memories she had of her mother. And she was afraid that one day they would disappear completely.

‘I was scared of storms when I was younger. And I remember that my mother used to put me in her lap and tell me that there was nothing scary about storms. That they were beautiful and powerful and that rain and wind were nothing to be scared of. And then – and then one day, she went outside during a storm and she didn’t come back. She never came back. The next day, my – my dad told me my mother was dead. So she lied to me, storms are dangerous, because if there hadn’t been a storm, she wouldn’t be dead,’ Luisa said, now full on sobbing.

‘I am so sorry, Luisa,’ Rose said, her blue eyes shining with tears as well.

‘And now my dad went away in a storm too. And I am _scared_ he isn’t going to come back either. And then I will be all alone.’

‘You won’t be alone. You can come stay with me. You’re my friend,’ Rose said, wrapping her arms around Luisa’s shaking shoulders. ‘And I am sure your father is okay,’ she said. ‘He has to be,’ Rose said firmly.

Luisa nodded, hugging Rose back. It felt good to tell someone why she was so scared of storms, her father hadn’t listened to her when she told him and she didn’t have any one else to tell. But now Rose knew, and she understood, and she hadn’t laughed at her or called her stupid for being scared. She had just listened and hugged her. And it helped her feel a little better.

‘Do you want me to read you something?’ Rose asked after a while.

Luisa nodded, she could no longer hear or see the storm and a little distraction might help.

Rose stood up and offered Luisa her hand, Luisa wiped at her cheeks and took it.

Rose led her to the couch, sitting down right next to her as she opened the book Luisa had lent her on the first page.

Luisa could feel the knots in her stomach untie as Rose read those familiar first words out loud to her. She knew the story by heart but Rose reading it to her made it new somehow. Rose did the voices differently, and all her little gasps and surprise faces made it seem like a whole new book.

The storm slowly faded to the back of Luisa’s mind until it was completely gone from her thoughts. Only left with Rose’s light voice and the adventures of the characters in the book.

With the curtains still drawn and the music on loud. Neither of them had noticed that the storm had ended hours ago. And it was only when Elena came in to say Emilio was on the phone for Luisa that they noticed just how much time had passed.

Rose smiled at her sheepishly as she put a bookmark halfway in the book. ‘It is a really good book. I love it.’

‘Thank you for reading it to me,’ Luisa said, smiling gratefully at Rose.

Rose nodded and smiled back happily, turning off the music and opening the curtains a bit.

‘Look! Luisa! It is no longer storming,’ Rose said enthusiastically, waving Luisa over to come see for herself.

And indeed, the rain had stopped and the wind had died down.

And for the first time that day, Luisa felt genuinely happy. The storm had passed, her father was okay and Rose was her friend. Maybe storms didn’t have to be bad all the time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cries* they are just so cute!!
> 
> Anyway, I hoped I didn't make you cry too much and if I did, I am very sorry. Not my intention when I started writing this but it just happened.
> 
> You can leave your feelings in a comment if you want! I would appreciate the feedback as I am still a little unsure of writing children.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

Luisa looked around her room as she tried to find something she had forgotten to pack. She was going to Elena’s house again this weekend and for the first time Luisa was actually looking forward to it. Rose was going to be there and they hadn’t spoken to each other after they said goodbye at the end of that weekend with the storm. But even if they hadn’t talked, Luisa had been thinking a lot about her.

Whenever she read a book, she tried to figure out if Rose might like it, what her voice might sound like when she read certain passages out loud and who her favorite character might be. Whenever she did her math homework she remembered how it was Rose’s favorite subject and how her eyes lit up when she talked about it, just like they did when Luisa made her laugh.

Luisa had plenty of other friends at school, but she liked Rose best, even if she had only met her twice. They just liked each other and Luisa was really looking forward to seeing her again.

‘Lu!’ Raf said as he stormed through the door and barged into her room without knocking. ‘We’re leaving! Daddy has to go!’ he said, jumping up and down excitedly.

‘Almost done,’ Luisa said as she put her hairbrush into her backpack. Their dad had been gone a lot lately, they hadn’t had dinner together in over a week. And now he was flying off to Italy for a few days.

Luisa always missed him when he was gone, she would rather have him at home than the gifts he always brought them when he came back but there was nothing she could do about it. She had learned that a long time ago.

As their dad had been gone so much, Rafael had been at his mother’s a lot too and Luisa had been feeling lonely whenever it was just her and one of their nannies. They were nice but it wasn’t the same as having her dad at home.

She couldn’t go to him when she had a nightmare, his bedroom was always locked even when he was home and he had told her she was old enough now to know bad dreams weren’t real and that she should just go back to sleep after. But she couldn’t really, so instead she turned on all her lights and read a book until she back asleep, usually hours later.

It had been during one of her middle of the night readings that she had discovered a new book she was sure Rose would like and she was excited to share it with her.

She put on her backpack and grabbed the book of her desk, but then an idea struck her.

She quickly ran to the other side of the room where she kept her crafts supplies and searched through them until she found a green ribbon.

‘Luisa, what are you doing?’ Rafael asked, tugging on her sleeve as she wrapped the ribbon around the book.

She wanted Rose to have the book, she had been so nice to her the last time and just _knew_ Rose would like the story even more than she herself had.

‘Who’s that for?’ Rafael asked curiously, he knew a gift when he saw one.

‘Rose,’ Luisa smiled, putting the book in her backpack, careful not to mess up the bow.

‘Why? Is it her birthday?’ Rafael asked, his eyes wide.

‘No, it’s not. I just think she’ll like the book,’ Luisa explained, taking her little brother’s hand.

Just as they walked out into the hallway, their father yelled something.

‘Luisa! Rafael!’ his voice sounded. ‘We are going to be late.’

‘Let’s go see mommy!’ Rafael said tugging Luisa down the stairs by her hand. He was even more excited now than he had been before.

Rafael spent the ride over to his mom’s house asking her questions about the book and why she was giving it to Rose until he got bored of Luisa answering ‘because she’s my friend’ every time and he started played with his dinosaurs instead.

Luisa pulled the book from her backpack, toying with the bow and wishing her father would drive faster.

Before Rose, Luisa had hated staying at Elena’s house, it was even worse than being at home with only her nanny. But now she got to see Rose when she went over there, she actually quite liked it, it was the only time she got to see her and she had quite missed her friend during these three weeks.

‘I’ll miss you, dad,’ Luisa said as she hugged her dad quickly. She was going to miss him, she always did, but at least she had Rose to distract her from it so she wouldn’t be so alone.

‘I’ll miss you too, sweetheart,’ her father said, already getting back in the car. ‘Be nice to Elena and take care of your brother.’

Luisa nodded, waving as her father drove off.

She kept waving until the car disappeared around the corner, when she turned around, she noticed that Elena and Rafael had already gone back inside, but the door was still open.

It felt weird walking through the hall alone, it was so big and empty and it didn’t feel like her house. It wasn’t her house and she always felt a bit like an outsider whenever she came here. Rafael was comfortable here, even Rose was, but she would always feel like a guest.

‘Hello Luisa,’ Sam greeted, he was sitting on the couch, little baby Derek in his arms, feeding him from a bottle.

‘Hi,’ Luisa said, coming closer to look at Derek. He had grown a lot since she’d last seen him, but he was still very small. He looked a lot like Rafael, same dark hair and skin but lighter eyes, a little more like Rose’s than her brother’s.

‘Do you want to hold him?’ Sam asked, adjusting the baby in his arms.

Luisa quickly shook her head. ‘No, thank you,’ Elena had once told her she was too wild and that you needed to be very calm and careful when holding babies, and she didn’t want to accidentally hurt Derek because she was being distracted by something.

‘Is Rose here?’ Luisa asked, hopping from one foot to the other, she really wanted to go talk with Rose so she could show her the book.

‘She is in her room,’ Sam smiled.

‘Thank you!’ Luisa said, immediately taking off towards the stairs, almost tripping over the first step as she tried to get upstairs as fast as she could. Elena might have had a point when she said Luisa should be more careful.

As she was not her brother, she actually remembered to knock before walking into Rose’s room, holding on to the straps of her backpack to stop her fidgeting.

‘Come in,’ Rose voice sounded through the door and Luisa felt a smile breaking across her face.

‘Hi!’ she said as she poked her head around the door, finding Rose sitting on her couch with a book in her lap.

‘Hi!’ Rose answered, smiling as she carefully placed a bookmark in her book and jumped off the couch.

‘Did you fall?’ Luisa asked, her smile fading as she saw the bandages on Rose’s knees.

She always fell, her teachers said it was because she was running and jumping around too much, but Rose was usually quiet and calm so she couldn’t really imagine her hurting herself while playing.

‘No,’ Rose said softly, looking down at her legs. ‘Eddie pushed me.’

Luisa frowned. ‘Who is Eddie?’ she asked as she walked fully into the room, stopping right in front of Rose.

‘He’s in my class,’ Rose said, looking at her feet.

‘Why did he push you?’ Luisa asked as she gently took Rose’s hand in her own, careful of the scrapes on her palms as well.

‘Well, I was reading during recess and he asked me if I wanted to play kickball with him, and I said I didn’t want to. And he pushed me off the bench.’

Luisa felt anger bubbling up under her skin. She didn’t like it when others hurt people she cared about, especially as it was Rose, who was much too nice to be pushed, by anyone. She wanted to go out and push Eddie off a bench. He deserved it.

Rose saw Luisa’s frown deepen as she continued speaking. ‘Elena said it was because he liked me. But I don’t understand, why would he push me if he liked me?’ Rose said, confusion clear on her face.

‘I like you. I would never push you,’ Luisa said angrily, folding her arms across her chest. ‘Boys are stupid. The boys in my class are all annoying too. You should just push him back.’

‘But then I’ll get in trouble,’ Rose said softly, looking back down at her feet.

‘Did Eddie get in trouble for pushing you?’ Luisa asked.

‘No…’ Rose said.

‘Then you can push them back. Because pushing someone means you do not like them. Not that you do. That is just stupid.’

‘Maybe it is just a boy thing,’ Rose shrugged.

‘Well, then I don’t want anything to do with boys,’ Luisa said firmly.

Now it was Rose’s turn to frown.

‘But who are you going to marry then if you don’t want anything to do with boys.’

‘A girl,’ Luisa said after thinking it over for a second. ‘They are nice and don’t push you when they like you. They just give you hugs.’

‘But you’re a girl,’ Rose said confusedly.

‘So are you,’ Luisa said, not understanding where Rose was going with this.

‘No but. Girls can’t marry girls. Girls have to marry boys,’ Rose said.

‘Why? I don’t want to marry a boy. Boys are stupid,’ Luisa repeated.

‘But you have to. Because girls can’t kiss girls,’ Rose said, her brows furrowed together.

‘Of course girls can kiss girls,’ Luisa said, not taking a second to think about it before leaning in and kissing Rose softly on the cheek. ‘See?’ she said, smiling slightly. ‘I just kissed you.’

Rose’s  face was almost as red as her hair as she mumbled ‘But that wasn’t a real kiss.’

‘Why isn’t that a real kiss?’ Luisa asked.

‘Real kissed are on the mouth,’ Rose said, blushing an even deeper crimson as Luisa felt her cheeks warm up a little as well. But desperate to prove Rose wrong, that girls really could kiss other girls, she squared her shoulders a bit.

‘Well, girls can have real kisses too,’ Luisa said firmly, closing her eyes as she leant in again and very quickly kissed Rose on the lips. It didn’t last more than a second but both her own and Rose’s face were completely red as she pulled away.

‘See?’ Luisa said, looking at the ground, trying not to run screaming out of the room. She had just kissed someone, a _real_ kiss and she always thought that real kisses were gross but it was actually kind of _nice_.

Rose looked even more confused than she had before and Luisa felt sort of bad about it. She had always been told that she should respect people’s space and not touch them without their permission. But she had just been trying to be nice, and maybe prove her point, that girls could kiss other girls, a little. Because she really did not want to kiss boys. Ever. But she hadn’t meant to make Rose uncomfortable.

‘I’m sorry,’ Luisa said softly, shuffling her feet on the carpet.

‘Girls really can kiss girls.’ Rose said, sounding a little awed, like she couldn’t actually believe it.

Luisa looked up to see that same disbelief in her eyes.

‘I told you they could,’ Luisa smiled a little, maybe she hadn’t made Rose uncomfortable after all maybe she was just surprised.

‘Maybe I don’t have to marry a boy now,’ Rose said, a smile slowly breaking across her face.

‘Of course you don’t!’ Luisa said, starting to smile as well. ‘Boys are mean, they push you and pull your hair. Why would you want to marry a boy?’

Rose shrugged. ‘I don’t really. Boys are kind of mean. Being pushed really hurt,’ she said, rubbing the bandage across her palm.

‘I’m sorry,’ Luisa said, taking Rose’s hand carefully in her own again as she pulled her down onto the couch with her. ‘When I am a doctor I am going to make that all better.’

‘You want to be a doctor?’ Rose asked.

Luisa nodded. ‘I want to help people be not sick,’ she said.

She had wanted to be a doctor since she was very little. It just felt right, kind of like kissing Rose had felt just now. But as she thought about that she started to blush again, so instead she decided to talk over it.

‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ Luisa asked instead.

Rose shrugged. ‘I don’t know yet.’

‘You should become an artist,’ Luisa said. ‘Your drawings are really great,’ she said, pointing at the many drawings on Rose’s walls.

‘Thank you,’ Rose said, blushing slightly again. ‘But I don’t know.’

‘You don’t have to know. You can do lots of things.’ Luisa said, meaning it 100%.

After that they didn’t say anything for a while, just thinking silently about everything that had just happened.

‘Oh wait! I have something for you,’ Luisa said, suddenly remembering the book she had brought for Rose.

She raced over to where she had dropped her backpack by the door, removing the book from between her pajamas and her toothbrush, making sure the bow was still in place before handing it to Rose.

‘Here,’ she said, giving Rose the book, not able to look her in the eyes as she was suddenly nervous again. ‘I thought you might like it. It’s about a girl who can do magic with math. It’s really cool.’

Rose’s eyes lit up as she untied the bow and read the summary on the back.

‘That’s sounds amazing!’ Rose said, her blues eyes sparkling happily and Luisa felt her heart beat faster in response. Rose was really pretty when she smiled like that and Luisa liked seeing her happy. She wanted everyone to be happy, but she wanted Rose to be happy more than others.

‘I hope so,’ Luisa said. ‘Do you want to read it?’

Rose nodded, already having turned to the first page.

‘Here,’ she said, handing Luisa the book she had been reading when Luisa walked through the door.

‘I haven’t finished it yet but I like it.’

‘Are there any mean boys in it?’ Luisa asked with a grin.

‘No,’ Rose smiled back. ‘Just a dog. He’s cute and goes on all kinds of adventures.’

Luisa nodded, she liked dogs and she liked adventures. And if Rose liked the book, that was good enough for her.

They read in silence for a while, the only sounds the turning of the pages and their laughs and gasps of surprise as they reacted to the words on the page.

Luisa got so absorbed in the book that eventually her kiss with Rose faded to the background. She had already known that girls could _really_ kiss girls, but she was glad Rose knew it now, too. Nobody should have to kiss boys. Especially if they hurt you. And Luisa silently vowed that if she ever met Eddie, she would kick him for pushing Rose. Nobody hurt her friend.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Rafael's birthday and Rose and Luisa are both invited!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *pretends I am not two months late*
> 
> Hey guys, have some cute gayby fluff!
> 
> I'm sorry it took so long, I was stuck and busy but I think I figured it out now, so hopefully the next update will be a little faster than two months from now.
> 
> Enjoy!

Luisa nervously smoothed her dress down, she normally didn’t like wearing dresses, but it was Rafael’s 6th birthday and they were having a big party at the hotel to celebrate. Her father had brought her a new dress from his latest trip especially for this party. It was blue and swishy and Luisa actually kind of liked it. But the dress was not the reason she was nervous. Today would be the first time Rose came over to the hotel and Luisa was excited to see her and show her around.

She wasn’t the only one excited for the party, Rafael, now six-years-old had slept in her room last night, waking her every ten minutes to ask if he could get up and celebrate yet.

‘Luisa!’ Rafael yelled as he burst through her door, he was wearing a blue blouse, the same color as her dress, and a clip-on tie he was very proud of because it made him look like their father.

‘Hey, handsome,’ Luisa smiled, stopping Rafael by wrapping him in a hug before he could mess up her carefully organized room.

‘You look very pretty, too,’ Rafael giggled as he pulled away.

‘Thanks,’ Luisa smiled, taking his hand. ‘Why are you here?’ she asked, playing oblivious.

‘The party is starting!’ Rafael said, jumping up and down and pulling on his sister’s arm to get her down to the party.

‘Raf, wait,’ Luisa said, laughing at her brother’s enthusiasm. ‘I have to get your gift first.’

‘You got me a gift?’ Rafael asked incredulously, his eyes wide as he looked up at his big sister.

‘Of course I got you a gift,’ Luisa smiled, grabbing the neatly wrapped box from her desk.

‘What is it?’ Rafael asked, bouncing up and down again.

‘You’ll have to wait and see,’ Luisa grinned, getting a little revenge on her brother for keeping her up the whole night.

‘Lu…’ Rafael whined, pouting adorably.

‘Okay,’ Luisa said, handing her brother the gift. ‘Happy birthday, Rafael.”

Rafael beamed and tore the bow off, nearly tearing the cardboard box in his haste to get to his gift.

‘Ohh!’ he gasped, almost reverently lifting his gift from the box. ‘Thank you!’ he smiled, already aiming the squirt gun at the wall, pulling the trigger and making gun noises.

‘You know that’s a water, not a laser gun, right?’ Luisa laughed, Rafael looking at her like she was stupid.

‘Duh, it’s just empty now,’ Rafael explained himself.

‘Just don’t aim it at me when it’s full,’ Luisa grinned, knowing fully well he was going to anyway, which is why she had bought one for herself as well, but she wasn’t going to tell Rafael that.

‘You’re the best!’ Rafael said as he wrapped his arms around his sister’s waist. ‘Thank you, Lu!’ he yelled as he ran off, eager to join his party, forgetting he had come upstairs to fetch Luisa.

Luisa smoothed her dress down again as she stepped into the empty elevator, she hoped Rose would be there already. She loved Rafael, but his friends were mostly just really annoying and Rose was going to be the only person her age there.

‘Luisa!’ her father yelled as soon as she exited the elevator. ‘Luisa, did you give your brother a water gun?’

‘Yes?’ Luisa said, smiling innocently up at her father. ‘But I told him not to aim it at anyone.’ That was a lie, she had told him not to aim it at _her_ specifically, but her father didn’t need to know that.

‘Did you tell him not to use it inside?’ her father asked, looking at her sternly.

‘Sorry?’ Luisa said with an innocent smile, giving her father her best puppy eyes.

Luckily for her, her father was then distracted by Elena arriving. As soon as he saw her he took off, obviously not interested in having a chat with his ex-wife on their son’s birthday.

Luisa wasn’t that thrilled Elena was here either, but she had brought Rose which more than made up for it.

‘Rose! Hey!’ Luisa smiled, sprinting across the hotel lobby to greet her friend. Before remembering her father’s rule about running in the hotel and slowing down.

‘Hi,’ Rose smiled, looking around in bewilderment. ‘You really live here?’

Luisa nodded, looking at the lavish interior of the Marbella as if seeing it for the first time like Rose was. She had gotten used to it by now, but she understood why Rose would be awed by the huge crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

She nodded, taking Rose’s hand and pulling her out of the walkway and more to the side of the room.

‘Wow, it’s really beautiful,’ Rose said, still holding Luisa’s hand.

‘Do you want to see my room?’ Luisa asked, squeezing Rose’s hand.

Rose nodded excitedly. ‘But I have to give Rafael his gift first.’

‘He’s…’ Luisa said, trailing off as she scanned the room for her little brother. She didn’t see him anywhere, there were a lot of boys and girls Rafael’s age running around the hotel lobby, their parents standing somewhat to the side, but she didn’t see Rafael anywhere.

‘Attack!’ her brother’s voice sounded suddenly as he popped up from behind a couch, water pistol at the ready.

‘Raf!’ Luisa yelled, shielding her face as Rafael and some of his friend sprayed water at them.

‘Got you!’ Rafael laughed triumphantly.

‘Raf!’ Luisa said, wiping water from her face. ‘I told you not to aim it at me!’

‘Whoops,’ Rafael smiled innocently, already getting his gun ready to go again.

‘Run!’ Luisa smiled at Rose, pulling her along by their still linked hands.

She and Rose laughed as they zigzagged between partygoers and guests alike, trying to evade Rafael and his water gun.

‘Where are we going?’ Rose laughed, using her free hand to wipe some of the water droplets from her forehead.

‘Staircase,’ Luisa explained, slowing down as she could no longer hear Rafael laughing and screaming behind them.

She slipped through a non-descript grey door, pulling Rose with her.

‘I think we lost them,’ Luisa panted.

‘That was close,’ Rose laughed, her dress, much like Luisa’s, splattered with water.

‘Come on, let’s go to my room so I can get my own water gun and we can get our revenge on Raf,’ Luisa said, taking Rose’s hand again and leading her up the stairs to the tenth floor.

They were both panting when they reach Luisa’s floor.

‘Lots of stairs,’ Rose said, her eyes sparkling happily.

‘Yeah, but there is usually no one there, it is the _only_ place in this hotel where it is quiet,’ Luisa explained, unlocking the door to their suite.

‘So this is my house, sort of,’ Luisa said, she still didn’t really know how to explain it. The whole hotel was her house, but this room was just for her family and it was the most “home” she had. ‘Come on, I’ll show you my room.’

‘Wow,’ Rose gasped, halting in front of the glass doors leading to her balcony. ‘That’s really beautiful.’

Luisa smiled, joining Rose near the window, looking out over the ocean and the beach.

‘It even prettier when the sun goes down,’ Luisa said, picking her own water gun of her desk. ‘Now let’s go get Rafael,’ she grinned.

She had wanted to show Rose her room, but there wasn’t really a lot to show. Luisa’s room was done in the same style as the rest of the hotel, she had asked her father to repaint the walls a different color than the light green they were now, but he had told her no because they would be moving again with in the year. That had been two years ago. But Luisa wasn’t complaining, she hated moving. But even now the only personal touches to her room where her books, toys and a couple of pictures.

Rose nodded and smiled, her gaze drifting over the walls to her bookshelves.

‘You have a lot of books,’ Rose said, stroking her finger across the spines of some of the books she recognized. ‘Who’s this?’ Rose asked, her eyes resting on an old photograph in a silver frame.

Luisa bit her lip as she picked the framed photograph off the bookshelf, sitting down on the edge of her bed, Rose quietly sitting down next to her.

‘That’s my mother,’ Luisa said softly.

‘She’s beautiful, you look like her,’ Rose said, wrapping her arm around Luisa’s shoulders, noticing the change in the older girl’s mood.

‘My dad says I look like her, too,’ Luisa said, her fingers brushing over the edge of the picture.

‘Do you miss her?’ Rose asked carefully.

‘Sometimes,’ Luisa shrugged. ‘But I don’t really remember much about her, and it makes my father sad to talk about her. My grandmother doesn’t like talking about her either.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Rose said, hugging Luisa fully now.

‘It’s okay,’ Luisa said, tears burning in her eyes. ‘She died a long time ago. She’s been dead almost as long as I knew her.’

‘Still, I’m sorry,’ Rose said, her blue eyes warm and caring.

Luisa nodded and wiped her cheeks, putting the only photograph she had of her mother back on its place on her bookshelf.

‘Let’s go make Rafael pay for ambushing us,’ Rose grinned.

And Luisa smiled too, Rose’s smile was helping her feel a little better. The truth was she used to miss her mother a lot more, usually when Rafael and her father were gone and she was all alone, but then she met Rose and she started feeling less alone. She had a friend now, a good friend and that was nice too.

‘Didn’t you have to give Rafael a present?’ Luisa remembered suddenly as they rode the elevator down together, guns at the ready.

‘Yes, but first payback, he made your beautiful dress wet,’ Rose smiled, bumping her shoulder against Luisa’s as the elevator stopped on the 1st floor.

‘What did you get him?’ Luisa asked curiously, peeking around the corner to make sure Rafael wasn’t waiting for them.

‘I got him a board game, we can play it together next time you come over to my dad’s house.’

Luisa smiled, Rose had gotten her brother a gift that was also partly for her. Her heart swelled a couple of sizes and she leaned over to kiss Rose quickly on the cheek, just because she felt like it.

‘What was that for?’ Rose asked, her cheeks glowing red and her eyes cast down to the floor.

‘Because I like you,’ Luisa shrugged. ‘Now let’s go find my brother.’

Rafael was still running around the hotel lobby with his water gun, their father desperately trying to get him to stop but to no avail. Rafael was hopped up on sugar and just the general excitement of it being his birthday.

Luisa grabbed Rose’s hand and pulled her behind one of the pillars.

‘You wanna go first?’ Luisa asked, her eyes sparkling, already handing the squirt gun over to Rose.

Rose nodded, her blue eyes twinkling mischievously.

‘Rafael!’ she yelled, making Raf look up, his eyes going wide as her noticed the water pistol in his step-sister’s hand. He tried to run with it was already too late, Rose hit him square in the chest.

‘Not fair!’ he yelled, still smiling, already lifting his gun to aim it at Rose. ‘That was a surprise attack,’

‘You ambushed us first!’ Luisa said, taking the gun from Rose and spraying her little brother in the face.

‘Lu!’ Rafael spluttered, wiping his face, his eyes glinting menacingly as he pulled the trigger.

As Luisa had taken the gun from Rose, she was standing right in front of her, and as such took the brunt of the water attack, the close range shot of Rafael’s water gun soaking the front of her dress.

‘I’ve been hit,’ Luisa said, dramatically clutching her chest, falling to the floor with a flourish, Rose barely keeping her smile hidden.

‘Do you give up?’ Rafael grinned, looking at his “dying” sister.

‘I do, you win,’ Luisa gasped, letting go of her gun to show she meant it.

‘Go now, and collect your present,’ Rose said in a grave tone, kneeling down next to Luisa, clutching her hand.

‘You got me a present?’ Rafael said, suddenly forgetting about the game they had been playing; he loved presents.

‘Uhu, it’s on the table, striped wrapping paper,’ Rose smiled.

‘Hey! I am dying here!’ Luisa huffed at her brother’s disregard for her dramatic death.

‘Present! Present! Present!’ Rafael chanted as he ran off to claim his gift.

‘Unbelievable,’ Luisa groaned, sitting up and pulling her wet dress away from her chest. ‘He totally got me,’

‘But he didn’t get me,’ Rose smiled, offering Luisa her hand to pull her to her feet.

‘That was because I was shielding you,’ Luisa groaned, smiling a little anyway.

‘My hero,’ Rose laughed, quickly leaning in to press a kiss to Luisa’s cheek, just like Luisa had done earlier. Only Luisa had just been in the movement of turning her head to see who was yelling her name and their lips brushed together instead.

Rose was blushing slightly as she quickly pulled away, Luisa felt her cheeks were red as well.

‘Luisa!’ a voice sounded. Right, someone was calling her name.

‘What are you two doing?’ Elena asked, looking between the two girls, her eyes narrowing imperceptibly as she spotted the blush on their faces.

‘Water fight?’ Luisa tried, holding up her water gun, “accidentally” hitting the trigger and raining a little water down on Elena.

Rose burst out laughing next to her but covered it up with a cough.

Elena clenched her jaw but said nothing, just wiping the droplets off her silk blouse.

‘Aren’t you a little old to be playing such games?’ Elena said, her smile cold, as all her smiled were in Luisa’s experience; it gave her the shivers.

‘It’s Rafael’s birthday,’ Luisa smiled innocently.

‘And where is Rafael now?’

‘Unwrapping his present,’ Rose said, biting her lip to keep from laughing, Rose wasn’t helping by barely containing her own giggles.

As soon as Elena turned on her heels and walked over to the table with presents, Rose and Luisa looked at each other and burst out laughing.

‘Come, let’s get some cake,’ Luisa said, pulling a still giggling Rose with her to the snack table.

‘Don’t you want to change out of your dress?’ Rose asked, accepting the plate with a huge slice of chocolate cake from Luisa.

‘Nah, it’s fine, it will dry,’ Luisa smiled, taking a bite of her own cake.

‘It still looks nice on you,’ Rose said, her cheeks still a little pink form their accidental kiss.

The two girls sat down at a far off table, away from all the screaming children and the disapproving gaze of their parents.

‘Isn’t it your birthday soon?’ Luisa asked, after finishing her slice of cake.

‘In a month,’ Rose smiled.

‘We’ll be the same age,’ Luisa smiled.

‘For a little while,’ Rose smiled, Luisa’s birthday was only three weeks after her own.

‘What do you want for your birthday?’ Luisa asked, already having an idea in mind but asking could never hurt.

‘I don’t know, haven’t thought about it yet,’ Rose said, pensive.

‘So are you having a party?’

Rose nodded. ‘Of course, my father won’t shut up about it, saying that his little girl is growing up so fast,’ Rose added with a grin. ‘You’ll come right?’ Rose asked, almost nervously, as if she expected Luisa to say no.

‘Yes, as long as you don’t give my brother another water pistol,’ Luisa grinned.

‘I don’t know, he might aim it at Elena,’ Rose giggled.

Just at that moment Luisa heard Rafael’s voice pipe up from somewhere in the room, calling out her name.

‘Over here, Raf,’ Luisa sighed, she was enjoying just talking with Rose. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked as she saw Rafael’s pout.

‘Daddy took away my water gun, he didn’t like it when I shot at the guests,’

‘Here, have mine,’ Luisa said, ruffling her brother’s hair fondly. ‘Happy birthday, Raf,’

‘Thank you, Lu!’ Rafael grinned, ready to storm off and take on a whole bunch of people with his new squirt gun.

‘Raf!’ Luisa yelled after him. ‘Just don’t shoot people without a water gun themselves, okay? They don’t like that.’

Rafael nodded but when Rose and Luisa heard Elena yell something in another language a little later, Luisa was pretty sure Rafael hadn’t listened to her advice.

She and Rose collapsed in another fit of giggles, their knees bumping together underneath the table. It was one of the best birthday parties Luisa had ever been too, and it would continue to be the best for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seriously, sorry it took so long. Hoped the wait was worth the wait, though, even if this chapter was more fluff than anything else.
> 
> Comments are very welcome, death-wishes less so but I do understand them.
> 
> Hopefully till next week, but I can't make any promises!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for sticking with this story through its two month absence! And I am so happy you still like it!
> 
> Enjoy!

Luisa watched, pressing the gift to her chest as Rose said goodbye to the last of her friends. The party was winding down and for once Luisa was glad to stay over at Elena’s place, it meant she got some one-on-one time with Rose after the party ended, and she really wanted Rose’s full attention when she gave her her gift.

It had taken her weeks to come up with the perfect gift. There were so many things to choose from, so many books Rose had talked about wanting to read. But Luisa had decided not to go with a book, books were somehow too simple, so she had come up with something else entirely, something original.

Luisa smiled and waved Rose over as she finished saying goodbye to her friends. Rose’s friends were nice and the party had been fun, and after Rose’s friends got used to Luisa, they had gotten along great.

Luisa liked meeting new people, she made friends easily, except with boys. Boys usually found her too loud. Luisa didn’t care about that, she didn’t like boys anyway.

There hadn’t been any boys at the party either, well, except for one, who very annoyingly cut Rose off before she could reach Luisa.

‘Rose!’ Rafael yelled, wrapping his arms around Rose’s waist in a hug.

‘Hi, Raf,’ Rose smiled, she and Rafael had been getting a little closer thanks to all the weekends they spent together. ‘Thanks for not spraying all my friends with your water gun.’

Luisa rolled her eyes, she had regretted _that_ particular gift of hers immensely. Rafael carried the water pistol with him everywhere and she wasn’t safe from it anywhere.

‘Luisa told me not to, that girls don’t like that,’ Rafael shrugged as if he couldn’t understand who _wouldn’t_ like being sprayed in the face with cold water. ‘And Sam made me a target, want to see me shoot it?’ Rafael said, already bouncing up and down excitedly, pulling on Rose’s hand.

‘Maybe later,’ Rose smiled as Rafael pouted sadly. ‘I still have to unwrap Luisa’s gift.’

‘Have you unwrapped mine yet?’ Rafael asked, his smile returning.

‘I don’t think so…’ Rose said, Rafael already pulling her towards the gift table.

Luisa sighed, her brother was really stealing her thunder here. Just as well, her gift was way better than Rafael’s anyway.

‘Happy Birthday, Rose!’ Rafael said as he thrust the gift at Rose, jumping up to quickly peck Rose on the cheek, blushing a little as he lowered back down to the ground.

Rose met Luisa’s eyes, giving her a questioning look.

Luisa shrugged, it seemed she was not the only one enamored by Rose.

Rose made a show of shaking the gift, making a couple of wild guesses that had Rafael giggling like a toddler, which he still was, in Luisa’s opinion at least.

‘It’s not a puppy!’ Rafael laughed. ‘A puppy wouldn’t fit in there!’

‘Oh, really?’ Rose smiled. ‘Well, I’ll just have to open it and find out then.’

Rafael couldn’t hide his anticipation and was jumping up and down as Rose finally tore through the wrapping paper.

Luisa heard Rose laugh as she held up the water gun.

‘Now we can have a water fight!’ Rafael said, excitedly waving his own squirt gun around.

‘Thank you, Raf,’ Rose smiled, giving Rafael another quick hug. ‘Maybe after dinner, okay?’

Rafael nodded. ‘I will go prepare!’ he said as he dashed off in a different direction.

‘I tried to get him to pick something else,’ Luisa said, joining Rose at the gifts table. ‘But he wouldn’t listen to reason.’

‘I like it. At least I can defend myself now. It’s been a month and he hasn’t let that gun out of his sight.’ Rose smiled, the small scar in the corner of her lip crinkling. Luisa had always wondered how she had gotten that scar.

‘I know, worst gift I ever picked. So I hope I did better with this one.’ Luisa smiled nervously as she held the gift out to Rose. ‘Happy birthday, Rose.’ She copied her baby brother and leaned in to kiss Rose on the cheek, lingering longer than Rafael had, resulting in both her and Rose blushing pink.

‘I’m sure I’ll love it,’ Rose smiled.

‘Oh, wait!’ Luisa said before Rose could get started on the bow. ‘I made you this, too.’ She dug into her pocket, pulling out the red paper rose she had made and glued onto a hairclip. She gently tucked a lock of hair behind Rose’s ear and fastened it with the rose.

‘Thank you.’ Rose blushed as red as the rose now hidden between her wild curls.

‘Now you can open your present,’ Luisa prompted, not wanting to appear as nervous as Rafael.

Rose gasped as she lifted the lid of the box. ‘Wow!’ she said, turning towards Luisa. ‘Wow,’ she repeated, a little softer, more awed as she lifted one of the paint brushes from the box.

‘You like it?’ Luisa asked.

‘I love it! Thank you!’ Rose beamed, wrapping her arms tightly around Luisa’s neck, the box of brushes, pencils and markers rattling in her lap. ‘Best birthday present ever,’ she whispered next to Luisa’s ear.

Luisa smiled as she leaned into the hug.

‘I’m glad you like it,’ Luisa said sheepishly as she pulled away from the hug.

‘I am glad you were here, best birthday ever!’ Rose smiled, making Luisa blush.

‘There are so many things I have never used before,’ Rose said excitedly as she rummaged through the box.

‘I thought you could try different things and find out what you liked drawing with,’ Luisa said, feeling the need to explain the random assortment of drawing supplies in the box.

‘Want to go try some out?’ Rose said excitedly.

Luisa nodded. ‘I can’t really draw, though.’

‘Of course you can! Or I can teach just! Come on!’ Rose said, pulling Luisa into the house by her hand.

* * *

Luisa was really happy Rose liked her gift so much, they had been drawing together for an hour now. And it had become very apparent Luisa hadn’t inherited any of her mother’s talent when it came to drawing.

Her father had shown her some drawing her mother had done once and she had been really good. She had no idea what had happened to those drawings since, but she hadn’t seen them again after her father put them away.

Luisa didn’t really care her drawing weren’t any good. She enjoyed watching the concentrated look on Rose’s face, the tip of her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as her hands flew across the paper, trying out the charcoal.

Luisa was so busy staring at Rose’s drawing, she completely forgot to draw something herself.

‘What are you drawing?’ Rose asked, suddenly looking up, brushing a lock of hair away from her face, the charcoal on her fingers leaving a black smudge on her forehead.

‘Uhm,’ Luisa said, looking at her completely blank paper. ‘A white bunny in a snow storm?’

Rose laughed. ‘I like it, it looks nice,’ she joked.

‘I like yours better,’ Luisa said, reaching across the table to wipe at the smudge on Rose’s forehead, only making it worse, the both of them giggling.

At precisely that moment the doorbell rang.

‘I’ll get it!’ Rose yelled. Elena and Sam were both upstairs with Derek who was being fussy and Rafael was still doing his target practice in the backyard.

Luisa followed, teasing Rose about the charcoal on her forehead as the younger girl furiously tried to wipe it away before opening the door.

They were still laughing as Rose unlocked the door.

‘Hi!’ Rose said, elbowing Luisa in the side softly as she tried to cut in front of her, both the girls straightened up as they saw the blue uniforms of the people standing on the front porch.

‘Hello sweetheart,’ the male policeman said. ‘Is your daddy home?’

Rose nodded.

‘Can you go get him for us?’ the woman said with a gentle smile.

Rose nodded again. ‘Dad! It’s for you!’ she said, taking a step back, looking at Luisa with scared eyes. It wasn’t every day the police came to your door.

Luisa heard Sam come down the stairs, she saw his smile fade as he saw who their guests were.

‘Officers, can I help you?’ he said, one hand on Rose’s shoulder.

‘Maybe it is better if we talk in private,’ the man said, looking at Rose and Luisa.

‘Rose, take Luisa upstairs, please,’ Sam told his daughter, a serious expression clouding his normally smiling features.

Luisa could feel a sense of dread settle in her stomach, she knew Rose could feel it too as she didn’t move.

‘Rose,’ Sam prompted again.

‘Come on,’ Luisa said softly, taking Rose’s hand and leading her up the stairs.

‘I want to know what they’re saying,’ Rose said as the reached the first landing, out of sight but still within earshot of the front door.

‘Rose…’ Luisa said, trying to pull Rose up the rest of the stairs.

‘I want to know,’ Rose said, more firm and defiant than Luisa had ever heard her sound.

‘It’s probably nothing, the police come by the hotel all the time,’ Luisa tried.

‘I want to hear,’ Rose said, not moving an inch.

Luisa nodded, she was a little curious about what was going on, too.

‘You are Samuel Ruvelle, yes?’ the policeman asked, his voice clearly audible from their space on the stairs.

‘Yes, what is this about?’ Sam asked.

‘You are still listed as Nora Evans’ emergency contact. Is that correct?’

‘Yes, she is my ex-wife, did something happen to her?’

‘Mr. Ruvelle, I am very sorry to inform you, but your ex-wife was involved in a car crash this afternoon. They rushed her to the hospital, but she didn’t passed away before they got there. I am sorry for your loss.’

It took a couple of seconds for the words to register, but once they did, Luisa’s mouth fell open in shock and her heart stopped. She immediately looked over to Rose, because Nora Evans, Sam’s ex, was Rose’s mother.

Rose was frozen in place, her blue eyes already shining with tears.

Sam said something to the police officers but Luisa didn’t hear, her attention was solely focused on Rose as the policeman’s words spun through her head.

The door fell closed and Luisa heard Sam walk their way.

He spotted them almost immediately, Luisa thought he might be angry, but when he spoke his words were soft and there were tears in his eyes.

‘Oh, Rose,’ he said as he spotted his crying daughter.

Rose suddenly unfroze, her hand falling from Luisa’s as she sprinted up the stairs, slamming the door to her room shut.

‘What was that about?’ Elena asked as she walked out into the hallway.

Luisa didn’t know what to do or say as Sam stormed past her, starting to knock on his daughter’s door, calling her name.

‘Sam?’ Elena asked.

‘Nora died,’ Sam said. ‘Rose overheard.’

‘Oh,’ Elena said.

 _Died._ Luisa knew that that had been what the conversation had been about, she wasn’t stupid, but hearing that word said aloud made her realize somehow. It made it real. Rose’s mother had _died_.

Luisa wanted to walk up the stairs, to talk to Rose, but she didn’t know what to say. She still wanted to help Rose, somehow.

Elena stopped her, ushering her down the stairs.

‘Come on,’ Elena said, her tone softer than Luisa had ever heard her use before. ‘Let’s leave them alone for now.’

Luisa nodded numbly, watching as Rose unlocked the door and collapsed into Sam’s arms, crying.

* * *

Luisa was sitting at the kitchen table, the box of drawing supplies still open in front of her. Not even an hour ago she and Rose had been laughing and smiling, celebrating her birthday, and now, now Rose’s mother was dead.

‘I’m going to call your father to come pick you and Rafael up,’ Elena said, putting a cup of tea down in front of Luisa.

Luisa looked up. ‘No. I have to be here for Rose.’

‘Luisa, there is nothing you can do. You should just go home.’

‘No!’ Luisa yelled. ‘I’m her friend! I know how she feels! My mother is dead, too! I – I…’ Luisa started crying both for her own mother and for Rose’s.

‘Luisa,’ Elena sighed.

‘No! I am not going home!’ Luisa said, jumping away from the table and running up the stairs, passing Sam just as he came out of Rose’s room.

Luisa wiped at her tears before knocking on Rose’s door.

Rose didn’t answer, so Luisa tried the handle; it was locked.

‘Rose,’ Luisa called out softly.

‘Go away, Luisa. I don’t want to talk,’ came the sniffed reply from the other side of the door.

‘Okay, I – I will just be here, then,’ Luisa said, leaning back against the locked door. ‘In case you change your mind.’

There was no response from the other side of the door. So Luisa just sat there in silence for a while, but silences never had been her strong suit.

She started humming softly, a song her mother used to sing to her. She didn’t remember the words, but the tune had always stuck with her. It was a Spanish lullaby of some kind, she had asked her father once if he knew the words. But he said he didn’t so Luisa had never asked again.

‘I don’t remember a lot about my mother,’ Luisa said, she wasn’t sure Rose could hear her but she had to do something. ‘She died when I was still really young. But I remember she sang this to me the last time I saw her. Just like she had every night as she put me to bed. And it isn’t a lot. But whenever I think about her and get sad, I remember that she used to sing to me, and I can almost hear her voice in my head. And I know this isn’t really helpful right now, but you know, your mother is never really gone, she’ll always be in your heart and in your memories.’

Luisa sighed, not knowing if she was making things worse or better. She understood Rose’s pain, but it had been different for her, she had only been six. And she couldn’t remember how she felt right after her father told her, she was certain she’d cried. But besides that it was all kind of a blur.

‘Luisa,’ Rose’s hoarse voice came from the other side of the door, closer than Luisa had expected, it sounded like she was right on the other side.

‘Yes?’ Luisa asked.

‘Can you come in?’

‘Yes, of course,’ Luisa said, scrambling to her feet as she heard Rose get up to turn the key.

There was no trace left of the happy smile Rose had worn only an hour before, her blue eyes were red from crying, wet tears still making their way down her cheeks. There were black smudges underneath her eyes from where she had wiped at her tears with her charcoal stained hands, the red flower hanging sadly in her hair, dented and half unfolded.

‘I’m sorry,’ Luisa said, wrapping her arms tightly around Rose’s heaving shoulders.

Rose cried onto Luisa’s shoulder until she had no more tears left. Luisa tried to comfort her, but she had no idea how. So she just held Rose and petted her hair, trying not to cry herself.

‘Do you want me to read to you?’ Luisa asked as Rose lifted her head after a while, remembering how Rose had read to her during the lightning storm, how it distracted her from the memory of losing her mother and the fear of losing her father too.

Rose nodded slowly, unwrapping her arms from Luisa’s neck as Luisa got up to get a book. She picked Rose’s favorite one, knowing it had a happy ending.

The story didn’t bring a smile to Rose’s face as it usually did, but she calmed down a little, quietly staring ahead of her until her eyes fell closed.

Luisa put the book away and noticed Sam had been watching them.

‘Thank you,’ Sam said as he stepped in and carried Rose to her bed, careful not to wake her. ‘Elena called your father, but you can stay here if you want to. You’re a good friend, Luisa.’

Luisa nodded. ‘I want to stay. I know how she feels, I lost my mother, too.’

Sam nodded, squeezing her shoulder as he led her to her own room across the hallway.

‘We’ll just let her sleep for now. She needs rest and so do you.’

Luisa didn’t get a lot of sleep that night, she kept thinking about the fact that Rose’s birthday would now always be clouded by her mother’s death and how unfair that was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry...


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This turned out to be a very difficult fic for me to write for some reason, that's why it has taken me so long (ten weeks, embarrassing really) to update. But I finally figured out how to divide the chapters, so let's hope it won't be ten weeks till the next update!
> 
> Thank you for your patience with me, and I wish i could say this chapter was a happy one, but it isn't.
> 
> So get some tissues ready and enjoy baby Rose and Luisa!

The first thing Luisa did when she got home from school that Monday afternoon was walk up to the front desk of the hotel and ask Michel, the manager, if there had been any calls for her today.

Michel looked at her with the usual disdain he had for all people who came by his desk and expected him to do his job. He then slowly shook his head, not thinking her important enough to use his voice.

Luisa frowned, she had expected, no, _hoped_ , Rose would have called.

After they’d gotten the terrible news Saturday, Luisa had tried to be there for Rose as much as possible. She’d been at Rose’s side all of Sunday, to hug her as she cried, to hold her hand, to try and comfort her as best as she could while the adults were busy with adult things. But when Sunday came around, Luisa knew she had to go home as she had school tomorrow and there was no chance her father (or Elena for that matter) would let her skip class to stay with Rose, even now

When she left that evening, Sam had said he appreciated her being there for Rose. Then Luisa had given the crying girl one last hug, telling her she could always call if she wanted to talk. Rose had nodded then but had apparently not called.

Luisa quickly made her way up to her room, bypassing Rafael and their current nanny so she could call Rose in peace.

But as soon as she opened the front door, Rafael spotted her and abandoned his toys to come give her a hug.

He knew what was going on with Rose’s mother; it just didn’t affect him much as he was still young. So he was his usual, happy self.

‘Lu! Look what I made at school today!’ Rafael said as he dragged Luisa towards the table where a stack of drawings was proudly displayed.

Luisa smiled a little as Rafael showed her the drawings, mostly of scary monsters destroying the city and himself has the hero waving around a water gun until they left.

‘What’s this?’ Luisa asked when they reached the last drawing in the stack. It was different from all the others; there were no monsters, or people, just lots of colorful flowers and tiny hearts.

‘Flowers, for Rose. Because she likes flowers. Because she is sad.’ He said it so calmly, so sweetly Luisa felt the urge to hug him again.

‘Lu!’ Rafael giggled as he tried to squirm out of Luisa’s embrace.

‘That was really nice of you, Raf,’ Luisa said, smiling proudly at her little brother. ‘I am sure she will like it.’

Rafael nodded. ‘Want a candy?’ he asked, jumping from one topic to the next, apparently done with his drawings for now.

Luisa nodded and Rafael sneakily moved around the room to steal some candy from the minibar.

He was grinning as he passed a wrapped piece of chocolate to Luisa.

‘Don’t tell daddy,’ he whispered, quite loudly.

‘I won’t,’ Luisa promised, smiling at Rafael as he ran off again to play with his toys.

She chewed her candy thoughtfully and took the phone out of the cradle, thinking of something to say to Rose before she dialed her number.

Luisa wasn’t sure how much help she’d been to Rose yesterday but she couldn’t just do nothing while her friend was sad. It hurt to see Rose like this, she wanted to cheer her up, tell her that everything would be okay: but it wouldn’t. People didn’t come back from the dead, so she had nothing uplifting to say to Rose. But she walked into the privacy of her own room and called Rose, still not sure of what to say.

‘Sam Ruvelle speaking,’ Sam said from the other end of the line.

‘Hi Sam, it’s Luisa. Is Rose there?’ she asked, sitting down on the edge of her bed, kicking her legs nervously.

‘Yes, she stayed home from school today. She was taking a nap before, but will check if she’s awake. I am sure she would like to talk with you. She has taken Nora’s, her mother’s death very hard. But you being there for her helps. Thank you for being such a good friend, Luisa.’

Luisa felt her cheek coloring at the praise.

She heard muffled talking over the phone for a while before Sam spoke to her again.

‘I’m handing you over to Rose now,’ Sam said, his voice being replaced by a sniffed and nasal ‘hi’; Rose had very likely been crying before.

‘Hey, how are you doing?’ Stupid question, Luisa thought as the words left her mouth, Rose couldn’t possibly be doing well.

‘I don’t know. It doesn’t feel real. I keep thinking my mother is going to walk through the door at any moment, that everything is okay. And whenever I sleep I forget what happened, and she’s just there. Hugging me, drawing with me, making pancakes together. But then I wake up and I remember she’s gone, dead. My mother is dead,’ Rose said. She sounded so defeated and upset Luisa wished she could reach through the receiver and hug Rose.

She remembered feeling the same when her own mother died, how she kept thinking that it couldn’t be true, that it was all a dream and that when she woke up the nest morning her mother would be there, singing to her. But of course, it _had_ been true, and her mother had never returned to her.

Luisa still didn’t know exactly what to say. She had the feeling Rose had heard the phrase “I’m sorry for your loss” a lot over the past few days and she knew it was not really all that comforting anyway. Luckily Rose continued.

‘The funeral is tomorrow. I don’t think I’m ready to say goodbye yet,’ Rose said, her sniffing turning into full sobs now. And Luisa squeezed the phone as if it was responsible for Rose’s pain and keeping them apart so she couldn’t comfort her best friend.

‘You don’t have to say goodbye yet; you never have to. She will always be with you in your memories.’

‘But I can’t see her again. Ever.’

‘I know. But you have pictures, and your father’s memories and your own. And there will be a grave, something you can visit. I go to my mom’s grave sometimes, and I talk to her. My mother told me about heaven, and I think she is there now, watching me. And so is your mother. A funeral is more like closure, not a goodbye.’

‘Will you come to the funeral with me?’ Rose asked in a small voice. ‘I don’t want to go alone.’

‘Of course!’ Luisa said, _this_ she could do. She could be there for Rose tomorrow, she could hold her hand and hug her.

‘Thank you,’ Rose said. ‘For calling, and for going to the funeral with me, just, for being my friend really.’

‘Thank you for being my friend, too,’ Luisa said, her own voice sounded strained as she felt tears well up in her eyes.

‘My dad is calling me; I think I have to go. Thank you, again, for calling me. It helps a little.’

‘Bye Rose, I will see you tomorrow.’

* * *

‘No,’ her father said, he had just walked in from work and the first thing Luisa asked him was if she could go to the funeral the next day.

‘Why not?’ Luisa asked, arms folded across her chest.

‘You have school. And you’re too young for that sort of thing.’ He didn’t even look up from his newspaper as he said it.

‘Rose is younger than I am and she is going,’ Luisa said, feeling like a little kid again. She wasn’t Rafael’s age and hadn’t been for a long time. Sometimes she wondered if her father knew the difference.

‘That’s because it is her family that has died.’

‘It’s her _mother_ and that’s why I have to go. I promised! She is my friend and I have to be there for her! I know how she feels! I remember being alone at mom’s funeral and wishing there was someone there for me!’

Her father looked up, the same sad look he always got when she brought up her mother on his face. It was part of my she never talked about her; she didn’t like seeing her father upset.

He seemed to think it over for a second. ‘Okay, you can go. I’ll call Elena,’ he said, smiling softly at her.

‘Thank you, dad!’ Luisa smiled, giving her father a hug.

‘Luisa…’ her father said after Luisa had turned around. ‘I am sorry we don’t talk about your mother more, it is just, hard for me. She was the first person I ever loved.’

Luisa nodded, feeling her throat close a little. ‘I know, it’s okay,’ she said, walking back to give her father another hug. ‘I love you, dad.’

‘I love you too, sweetheart.'

* * *

Luisa fidgeted nervously with the hem of her black dress, waiting for the front door to open. Last night her father had called Elena to tell her he was okay with Luisa skipping school to go to the funeral, and after a brief discussion Luisa had tried not to listen to, Elena had passed the phone to Sam who told her father he was grateful as Rose was having a difficult time and needed a friend.

It was a little strange to hear Sam and her dad agree on something, as Elena had cheated on Luisa’s father with him. The adults all thought she didn’t know this, but she knew, of course she knew. But she guessed that the death of a first wife leaving them alone with a daughter was something they could both relate too.

So here she was now, on the porch of Elena’s house, dressed in all black, ready to go to a funeral for a woman she had never met.

The door opened, revealing Sam, who wasn’t grinning like he usually was when he welcomed Luisa into the house. He too was wearing all black and a sad expression.

‘Hello, Luisa,’ Sam greeted. ‘Rose is upstairs.’

Luisa nodded and passed him silently. She could feel the sadness in the house and while it made her uncomfortable, she walked up the stairs anyway. She was here for Rose, and she could be strong for her.

‘Rose,’ Luisa said softly as she knocked on the door.

There was no reply but Luisa walked in anyway. ‘Rose?’ she asked again, spotting her friend sitting on the edge of her bed, crying silently. She was also dressed in a black dress, her hair braided back.

Luisa immediately crossed the room and sat down next to Rose, wrapping her arm around Rose’s shaking shoulders.

‘I miss her so much,’ Rose cried, burying her face in Luisa’s shoulder.

‘That’s okay,’ Luisa whispered, hugging Rose closer to her. Wishing she could do more, she hated seeing Rose like this, in so much pain. ‘It’s okay to miss her, and to cry, and to scream. But if you’re planning on screaming, could you please do it away from my ear?’

This got a small laugh out of Rose.

‘I won’t scream, I promise,’ Rose said, her watery smile fading as her eyes landed on a piece of paper on the bed next to them.

‘What’s this?’ Luisa asked.

‘It’s a drawing, for mom. I- She thought me how to draw. I wanted to draw her something, one last time,’ Rose said, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks again.

‘Can I see it?’ Luisa asked, not wanting to intrude on a personal moment between Rose and her mother.

To her surprise, Rose nodded. Wiping at her eyes.

Luisa folded open the drawing. It was done in charcoal, a girl and an older woman, hand in hand, both with wild curls on their heads. If the drawing had color, Luisa knew they would have been red. The drawing was obviously Rose and her mother.

‘It great,’ Luisa said softly, handing the drawing back to Rose. ‘I am sure she would love it.’

Rose nodded. ‘She loved all my drawings, she saved all of them. Even the really bad ones from when I was three.’ The thought made her smile, if only for a moment, before she remembered there would be no more drawings.

Suddenly Luisa remembered Rafael’s drawing. ‘Here, this is for you. Rafael made it,’ Luisa said as she handed the drawing over to Rose.

A weak smile appeared on Rose’s face as she noticed all the flowers and hearts. ‘This is a better gift than the water gun. Tell him I say thank you.’

‘I will,’ Luisa said, taking Rose’s hand in her own, hoping to comfort Rose that way.

‘Are you ready to go?’ Sam asked, poking his head around the still open door.

Luisa looked at Rose, who nodded and got up, not letting go of Luisa’s hand for a second.

* * *

The drive to the cemetery was a quiet one. Sam and Rose didn’t talk and Luisa didn’t know what to say. Elena had stayed behind with Derek, so there wasn’t even a baby’s crying to disturb to oppressive silence.

They were to first to arrive, the first to see the dark coffin standing near a dug out grave as they climbed the hill towards the cemetery.

Rose stopped as soon as she saw it, more tears rolling down her cheeks.

‘Is mom- Is she…’ _in there_. Rose didn’t need to finish the sentence for everyone to know what she had meant.

Sam nodded. Taking Rose’s hand; the one Luisa wasn’t holding.

Luisa squeezed Rose’s hand as they approached, a faint memory of a similar coffin in a cold, marble mausoleum resurfacing.

Outside on the cemetery it was much warmer and the sun was shining than it had been that day nearly six years ago, the weather now conflicting with the mood of a funeral.

Slowly, other people started to arrive. Luisa knew none of them, as she hadn’t known Rose’s mother either. But it was obvious Rose was related to most of them. Her grandparents were there, together with aunts, uncles, and some older cousins. Most of them with fiery red hair like Rose’s.

Rose’s grandmother gave Rose a long hug, the both of them crying while her grandfather shook hands with Sam.

After family a long line of people passed them by. Most of them told Rose how sorry they felt for her; Rose only nodded in return. If she tried to speak she would surely cry and Luisa was certain that once she started, she wouldn’t stop.

Once the service really began, Rose did start crying, silent tears rolling down her cheeks and reddening her blue eyes.

Luisa held her hand and pulling her into a hug as family members spoke about Nora. About how sudden it was, and how sad. How much everyone would miss her and how lovely she had been in life.

Luisa only half listened, more interested in making sure Rose was doing okay, or as well as she could be under the circumstances.

Eventually, it was Sam’s turn to speak. Rose looked up at her father, the only parent she had left, and gripped Luisa tighter as Sam told the story of how he and Nora had met, how happy they’d been. How they both loved Rose so much. How they would always love her.

Rose put on a brave smile, gripping Luisa’s hand tightly and clutching the drawing to her chest.

When the service drew to an end, everyone gathered around the grave. Luisa was still at Rose’s side, hugging her tightly as the coffin sunk was lowered down. The drawing lying on the top, folded into a square.

Sam handed them both a white rose to place on the coffin as well. They reminded Luisa of the white origami flowers she had made for Rose months ago. A much happier memory.

When the coffin reached the bottom, Rose broke apart. Her silent crying turning into full-on sobs as she flew around Luisa’s neck, burying her face in her shoulder once again.

Sam walked over quietly, putting his hand on his daughter’s shoulder, trying to comfort her.

It didn’t help, Rose couldn’t stop crying. Eventually, Sam resorted to carrying his daughter to the car, Luisa following behind them.

‘Thank you,’ Rose said to Luisa as Sam set her down in the backseat of his car. One of the two left on the parking lot.

Luisa nodded, leaning over to wipe the tears from Rose’s cheek before kissing her there quickly.

Rose gave her another faint smile before Sam closed the door, walking Luisa over to the other car on the lot: her father’s.

Luisa watched Rose in the car in front of them until they had to go in different ways at a crossing; Rose back to her new home with Sam and Elena, and Luisa back to the hotel.

She wished she could do more for Rose, be there for her. So she started working on a plan to cheer her up a little. It would involve books, and drawings. But definitely a lot of books.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, and as always comments are really appreciated, this is my first time writing young children, and I have no idea if I am doing it well.
> 
> Hopefully I'll see you again soon! Or at least sooner than 10 weeks...


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, finally a happy chapter! It's been much too long. 
> 
> There are some time-skips in this chapter because I wanted to age them up a bit, and I hope it didn't get too confusing. If you have any questions about it, please ask!
> 
> Enjoy the cutest happy babies ever (if I say so myself)!

‘You got _tall_!’ Luisa yelled as she ran over to hug her friend.

It had been a few months since she’d last seen Rose. The last time had been the funeral, really.

Luisa would have stopped by more if she could. But she and Rafael had spent the summer in Europe with their father, travelling from hotel to hotel, from city to city.

She and Rose had still called occasionally and Luisa sent lots of letters and pictures, but correspondence back from Rose was slow.

Luisa knew why; Rose was taking her mother’s death hard and she didn’t think living with Elena fulltime was helping matters. So Luisa didn’t blame her. She was just happy Rose had come to her birthday party.

‘You didn’t,’ Rose smiled. It wasn’t as wide as her smiles used to be, but Luisa would take it, for now. Her goal was to have Rose laughing and grinning before the day was over.

‘I know _I_ didn’t,’ Luisa grumbled. Using her hand to gauge the height difference between the two of them. Rose had always been a little taller than she had, but after an apparent grow-spurt over the summer, Rose was now towering over her by half a head.

‘I’m glad you’re here, I missed you,’ Luisa said as she hugged Rose again. She had really missed Rose. Every time she walked past an art store in some European city, she was always tempted to go in and buy something weird for Rose. Because she knew Rose would know what it was and how to use it.

‘I missed you too,’ Rose said softly. ‘Happy birthday, Luisa,’ she said as she pulled away from the hug.

‘Thank you,’ Luisa smiled, taking Rose’s hand and dragging her to the pool were the party was held.

‘Are all these people your friends?’ Rose asked, surprised at the sheer number of girls in and around the pool.

‘Most of them yes, some of them are not yet my friends. Just girls from my new school.’

‘No boys?’ Rose asked. The only boy in sight Rafael, who was terrorizing girls with his much larger water gun.

‘I don’t like boys,’ Luisa shrugged, kicking off her shorts and shirt, ready to dive in.

‘Don’t you want your present first?’ Rose asked, arms crossed tightly over her chest.

‘You got me a present?’ Luisa asked.

‘Of course, I got you a present. It’s your birthday,’ Rose said, shyly looking at the ground.

‘Well, I got you a present too, more of a souvenir, from my vacation in Europe,’ Luisa said excitedly, taking off at a sprint towards the hotel’s main entrance. ‘Come on, I’ll go get it!’ Luisa yelled over her shoulder, weaving between hotel guests and employees alike.

Rose jogged after her, struggling to keep up.

‘You didn’t have to get me anything,’ Rose said as they rode the elevator up together.

‘I wanted to,’ Luisa shrugged. ‘You’re my friend and I missed you a lot. And I am sorry we haven’t seen each other before now.’

‘That’s okay. You sent letters, they were nice. Thank you,’ Rose said, shyly looking down at the floor.

And Luisa was suddenly reminded of the shy version of Rose she’d met a year ago and how much more open Rose had become ever since. Until her mother’s death had undone all of that and Rose had withdrawn into her shell more than ever.

‘I’m glad you’re here,’ Luisa said as she grabbed Rose’s hand again.

‘You already said that,’ Rose said, a small smile tugging at her lips.

‘I know, I am just still really glad you’re here,’ Luisa grinned. ‘Now come on! I wanna give you your present!’ Luisa said as she darted out of the elevator, pulling Rose with her.

‘Can I give you yours first?’ Rose asked as Luisa rummaged through her closet in order to find her gift for Rose. ‘It’s your birthday after all.’

‘One moment,’ Luisa said, her voice muffled. ‘I had to hide it from Rafael, he loves unwrapping things.’

Rose laughed a little at that, and Luisa felt her own smile get wider.

‘Got it!’ she said, triumphantly holding the gift up in the air. ‘But you can give me mine first,’ she grinned.

‘Happy 12th birthday, Luisa,’ Rose said with a small smile, quickly handing the wrapped gift over.

It was about the size and shape of a book, so Luisa had a pretty good idea what it was.

‘Is it a kitten?’ she asked, shaking the gift.

Rose rolled her eyes. ‘No,’ she sighed. ‘It’s not a kitten.’

‘Are you sure? It looks like a kitten.’ Luisa tried to school her grin into something more serious.

‘It’s not a kitten! Will you just unwrap it?’ Rose asked, elbowing Luisa in the ribs playfully.

Luisa’s smile turned up a couple of 100 Watt at Rose’s actions, so she finally gave in and unwrapped the gift.

‘It’s a book!’ Luisa grinned, dialing her “surprise” up a notch.

‘You can see you’re going to junior high,’ Rose deadpanned.

Luisa stuck her tongue out at Rose before reading the back.

‘Oh! That’s sounds awesome! Thank you!’ Luisa said as she finished reading, wrapping her arms around Rose in another hug. Lingering a little longer this time.

‘Glad you like it,’ Rose said, shyly looking down again.

Luisa frowned, not sure why Rose was acting shyly now. ‘And this is for you,’ she said, handing her gift to Rose hoping to break the sudden tension that had risen between them.

When Rose shook the gift, it actually did rattle. ‘Did you get _me_ a kitten?’ Rose joked.

‘Yes, yes I did,’ Luisa said proudly.

Rose rolled her eyes, undoing the bow and lifting the lid of the box.

‘Do you know what they are?’ Luisa asked, barely containing the urge to jump up and down.

‘Yes, they are watercolor pencils,’ Rose said, a small smile on her face as she lifted them from the box, only then noticing the drawing at the bottom of the box.

‘What’s this?’ she asked as she put the pencils down, picking the drawing up for closer inspection.

‘We were in Barcelona, and there was this really tiny art store. There was a rose on their sign, so it reminded me of you and I had to go in. And inside they had hundreds of different pencils, just pencils, nothing else. And this woman was sitting at the counter, drawing flowers with watercolor pencils. And they were so beautiful! I wished you could have seen her drawings, so I asked if she could draw a rose for you. And she laughed and drew this for you,’ Luisa said. ‘And then she helped me pick the best colors to start drawing with.’

‘What does it say?’ Rose asked, showing Luisa the inscription underneath the flower.

‘Oh, it says _“for my best friend and my favorite artist”_ in Spanish,’ Luisa translated.

‘I didn’t know you spoke Spanish,’ Rose said softly, tracing the light pink petals of the drawn rose with her finger.

‘My, uhm, mother taught me,’ Luisa said quickly, not wanting to bring up any memories related to Rose’s mother. ‘She was Cuban. We spoke Spanish together; my dad never liked it. I tried to teach Rafael after she died, but my dad found out and didn’t us to speak it. So I rarely use it now.’

Rose nodded in understanding. ‘Thank you, it’s a really pretty drawing and a very nice gift.’

‘I’m sure you’ll be able to draw like that in no time,’ Luisa said.

‘I don’t draw much anymore,’ Rose said softly.

‘What? Why not?’ Luisa asked, surprised. ‘You’re so good at it!’

Rose shrugged. ‘Not really, Elena thinks it’s a waste of time too,’

Luisa bristled. ‘Who cares what Elena thinks! She is… She is _Elena_.’ Luisa didn’t know _what_ exactly Elena was. She would learn the right word for her in a few weeks time, when two of her friends got into a fight with each other.

Rose didn’t say anything, just staring at her feet.

‘Well, I don’t think it’s a waste of time. I think you are really good at it, and if it makes you happy you should just do it. No matter what Elena thinks.’

Rose nodded. ‘Maybe I’ll draw something with the new pencils.’

‘Good! Now let’s go swim!’ she said, she’d been absent from her own party for much too long already. Not that she cared all that much, Rose was much more important. ‘Come on,’ Luisa said, pulling the taller girl back downstairs with her.

* * *

‘Here,’ Rose said, pushing a piece of paper into Luisa’s hands, not looking her in the eyes.

‘That’s not a greeting, Rose,’ Luisa laughed, throwing her arms around the redhead’s shoulders, standing on her toes to do so. Rose just kept on growing it seemed, while Luisa was still waiting for her own growth spurt. It had been three months now since her 12th birthday and by now she was the shortest girl in the class.

‘Hi, Luisa,’ Rose smiled.

They hadn’t seen each other much in the last couple of months, maybe once every two weeks if they were lucky.

Rafael had started spending weeks with his mother, so he was usually at the hotel in the weekends, which meant that Luisa couldn’t come over as often as she had before.

‘Hi Rose, how are you?’ Luisa asked, she always asked that. Rose had slowly started doing better; she smiled more and was less shy around Luisa again. But Luisa knew Rose was still sad a lot a lot of the time.

‘I am fine,’ Rose smiled. ‘Now will you look at the drawing I did for you?’ she said, excitement coloring her words.

Luisa’s eyes went wide. ‘You drew me something?’ Rose hadn’t drawn _anything_ since her mother’s death. Mostly because it saddened her, but also because Elena told her it was a waste of time. That artistic talent meant nothing in the _real world_ , whatever she meant with that.

Luisa flipped the paper. Rose had drawn a cat; a small, fluffy, tabby cat.

‘It’s a kitten!’ she grinned, not having forgotten about that particular conversation.

‘Yes, it actually is,’ Rose smiled, falling down on Luisa’s bed, stretching her arms above her head.

‘I love it, thank you.’ Luisa said, joining Rose on the bed, holding the drawing up in the air like Simba so she could continue to look at it. ‘Is this done with the water color pencils?’

‘Yes, it took me a while to get the hang of them, but I do really like this one.’

‘Are you sure you want to give it to me, then?’

‘Yes, I’m sure. Thank you for making me draw again. You’re right, Elena is a bitch.’

‘Rose!’ Luisa mock-gasped. ‘You can’t _say_ that!’

‘You use it all the time!’ Rose laughed.

‘Yes, but I am _older_ than you,’ Luisa grinned.

‘So unfair,’ Rose grumbled, but Luisa knew she wasn’t serious because she was still smiling.

‘You’ll catch up in about six months, happy un-birthday,’ Luisa smiled, pecking Rose on the cheek.

‘Yeah, happy un-birthday to you, too,’ Rose said, quickly kissing Luisa back.

* * *

‘Girls! Dinner is ready!’ Sam’s thunderous voice sounded from the bottom of the stairs.

‘Are you hungry?’ Luisa asked, raising her head from Rose’s lap. They’d been reading on the couch in Rose’s room together.

‘Not really,’ Rose said, looking down at Luisa. ‘But if we don’t go downstairs Rafael will come upstairs.’

‘You look funny from this angle,’ Luisa laughed, tilting Rose’s chin down.

‘Well, so do you,’ Rose smiled, her face hovering a couple of inches above Luisa’s now.

‘DINNER!’ Rafael yelled as he stormed through the door.

Rose and Luisa shot apart so fast Luisa almost head-butted Rose. She wasn’t sure why, but she could feel she was blushing. And when she looked over at Rose, she was Rose’s cheeks were uncharacteristically rosy.

‘We heard Raf, jeez, no need to yell,’ Luisa said, chasing her little brother out of the room. ‘Come on, Rose, let’s eat,’ she said, waiting for her best friend to join her.

When she was in bed later that night, Luisa was still trying to wrap her head around what had happened in Rose’s bedroom earlier. Why they had broken apart so quickly when Rafael walked in.

It wasn’t like they were doing anything different than usual. They always sat close together. Elena had once remarked upon it, saying they were “joined at the hip”, Luisa had responded to that comment by hopping off her chair and into Rose’s lap, finishing her meal from there.

Except for Elena, the whole table had laughed, Rose the loudest of all.

Of course, with Luisa in her lap, eating her own dinner had become a little more difficult for Rose, so Luisa had fed her bites of her plate as well. That had been a fun family dinner.

She chewed on her lip as she thought about it some more. She touched and hugged Rose a lot, but she hugged all her friends so it wasn’t that unusual. But never had she sprung apart like this when she was being close to another friend and someone else walked in.

Luisa blushed a little as she remembered how close Rose’s face had been to her own, and how she had wanted to reach up and kiss her. That thought made her blush even harder. Which was strange. She had kissed Rose before, on the mouth even. But that was a long time ago, and it hadn’t happened since. So why did she suddenly want to kiss Rose again?

She kicked off her sheets and got out of bed, quietly sneaking across the hallway, not wanting to wake anyone up.

Luisa silently opened and closed Rose’s door.

‘Are you still awake?’ she whispered, the sound still quite loud in the silence of the sleeping house.

‘No, I’m sleeping,’ Rose’s voice sounded softly.

Luisa smiled. ‘Move over,’ she said as she lifted Rose’s blanket and crawled into bed next to her.

They had been doing this almost every night Luisa stayed over. To make it more like a real sleepover.

‘You have your own bed, you know?’ Rose said, but Luisa could hear the smile in her voice and knew Rose was just kidding.

‘But it is not as comfortable as yours,’ Luisa smiled. ‘Good night, Rose.’

‘Good night, Luisa,’ Rose said sleepily.

Luisa stared up at the ceiling, tapping her fingers on the blanket. She wanted to talk with Rose about what had happened earlier. About how she had wanted to kiss her. But for some reason. She couldn’t bring it up.

She didn’t know why; she never had trouble sharing things with anyone. Especially sharing things with Rose; Rose was her best friend and out of all her friends, Rose was the one who understood her best, who wasn’t put off by her enthusiasm or weird jokes.

They could just talk to each other so easily, but for some reason, Luisa felt like she shouldn’t tell Rose about this. She didn’t know exactly why, but she was afraid that if she told Rose that something might change between them, and she definitely didn’t want that. She liked the way things were between them right now.

Because after nine months, Rose was finally finding a place for her mother’s death; was finally moving past it. The mention of her mother no longer made her sad. She was smiling more. And even if she was still a little quiet around Elena, she was almost back to how she had been before around Luisa. And Luisa didn’t want to ruin that.

So instead of saying anything, she turned onto her side, looking at Rose’s sleeping form for a moment. ‘Sweet dreams, Rose,’ she whispered, before she closed her own eyes and went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While writing this, I was constantly thinking to myself "god, this is so gay, when did this get so gay?' and then I looked at my life and remembered that I was writing a Roisa fanfic and that literally everything I've written for the last two years has been gay, so...
> 
> Anyway, thank you for reading and please leave a comment with what you liked and didn't like. Nothing is better than opening your mailbox and finding nice comments in it!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am trying to get back on my normal "once a week" updating schedule, and Friday's are for The Greatest Love Story, so here you go.
> 
> A little warning, this chapter has some mild homophobia at the beginning, but I promise you the rest of the chapter is very adorably gay.
> 
> Enjoy!

It happened one day during lunch. Her friends were talking about which boys they liked, and as usual, Luisa wasn’t really listening to the conversation. She had nothing to say on the subject and thought talking about them was a waste of time.

‘And who do you like, Luisa?’ one of her friends, Ella, asked, looking at her with interest.

Luisa looked up from her food. ‘Rose,’ she said without thinking about it. She _had_ actually been thinking about Rose. Ever since that day months ago, and even before that really, Rose was on her mind constantly.

She couldn’t stop thinking about that time in Rose’s bedroom where they had so suddenly jumped apart, like they had been burned. It had happened another couple of times afterwards, when they were sitting close together or hugging. And somehow always when someone approached, they quickly split apart. She had wanted to ask Rose why they did it, what it meant. But she wasn’t certain of _why_ herself.

Her friends laughed like Luisa had just made a joke.

‘No, I meant which _boy_ do you like?’ Ella giggled.

Luisa frowned. ‘Rafael,’ she said after thinking it over for a while; he was the only boy she liked.

Her friends laughed again, harder this time. Luisa not really understanding what was so funny.

‘But you can’t _kiss_ Rafael, he’s your brother!’ Marlene said.

‘And he’s seven.’ Rachel added as if that would have made a difference.

Luisa’s frown deepened, her friends were being weird. Why would she want to kiss a boy?

‘So who do you want to _kiss_?’ Marlene asked, looking at her with interest.

‘Rose,’ Luisa said again. Because she might not want to kiss boys. She still really wanted to kiss Rose. She hadn’t brought it up with Rose yet, how she wanted to kiss her, still afraid it might change something between them.

‘But,’ Marlene started.

‘She’s a _girl_!’ Rachel added, frowning now.

‘So?’ Luisa asked, not understanding the problem.

‘You’re also a girl…’

Luisa was about to thank Rachel for that observation but then Marlene said something strange.

‘It’s _gay_ ,’ Marlene whispered.

Luisa frowned. She had never heard that word before and didn’t know what it meant.

‘My dad says being gay is a sin. That a man should only kiss and marry a woman, that two men or two women together is unnatural. That it is _wrong_ ,’ Rachel said, crossing her arms.

Luisa felt herself getting angry. Because she might not be certain what gay meant exactly, but she did know that two boys or two girls kissing wasn’t wrong or unnatural. She wanted to kiss girls, so how could it be unnatural?

‘Your father is the one who is wrong!’ Luisa yelled. ‘There is nothing _unnatural_ about girls kissing girls.’ She stood up and left her friends whispering at the table as she made her way to the library, feeling her anger fading: she had something to look up.

* * *

_Gay – 1. Homosexual 2. Light-hearted or carefree._

As Luisa was pretty certain Marlene hadn’t meant gay to mean carefree, she continued to the “H”

Once she found what she was looking for, her heart sped up a little.

_Homosexual – 1. Sexually attracted to people of one’s own sex. See also “Lesbian”._

She wasn’t sure about the “sexual” part, but she did feel attracted to girls. She always had. Only now she was realizing that maybe not all people felt that way. That it might be different to like girls while you’re also a girl. And if Rachel’s dad was to be believed, that it was _wrong_ to want to kiss girls.

Luisa shook that thought off of her: it wasn’t wrong. She knew it wasn’t wrong. And curiously she leafed towards the “L”.

Once she found it, she felt a strange sense of recognition, of belonging.

_Lesbian – 1. A woman who is sexually attracted to other women. 2. A homosexual woman._

Luisa bit her lip, closing the dictionary, determined to do some more research about it later. Because right now, it was all much too confusing.

* * *

Luisa nervously bit on her thumb nail as she waited. It was a habit she had grown out of years ago, but sometimes, when she was really nervous, she fell back on it.

Like right now when she was standing in front of her father’s office, waiting for him to open the door.

After doing some more research about being gay, about being a lesbian, Luisa had come to the conclusion that she indeed wasn’t like other girls. That other girls wanted to kiss boys and marry them, and Luisa had simply never had that desire. But when she thought about Rose, she did want to kiss _her_ , and maybe even marry her, if Rose wanted that. When they were older, of course.

She had also found out that a lot of people thought that being gay was bad, because the Bible said so. But there were a lot of other people who said it wasn’t wrong, that it was okay and natural and nothing to be ashamed off.

So here Luisa was, waiting for her father to open the door so she could tell him what she hand found out about herself. Hoping this wouldn’t end like some of the stories she’d read about “coming out”.

Luisa had thought about maybe keeping it a secret as some books suggested, but she didn’t want to lie about. Pretend to like boys she didn’t. That just wasn’t who she was.

‘Luisa, hello,’ her father said, surprised to see his only daughter standing in front of his door in the middle of the day.

‘Hi, dad. Can we, talk, maybe?’ Luisa said, looking down at the ground, trying to get her nerves under control.

‘I am working, sweetheart,’ her father started, but when he looked at his daughter he saw that something was obviously weighing heavily on her mind, so he let her in.

‘What do you want to talk about, sweetheart?’ he asked, sitting down behind his desk, Luisa sitting across from him. ‘Did something happen?’

‘No, nothing happened. But I wanted to tell you something.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Dad, I don’t like boys…’

Her father laughed. ‘That’s what you wanted to talk about?’

‘Yes, I don’t like boys. I like girls. I’m – I’m gay, dad.’

Her father stopped laughing, but when Luisa looked up, he didn’t look angry.

‘Oh Luisa, you’re still young. You might not like boys now, but you will in the future. That doesn’t mean you’re gay, sweetheart.’

‘No, I don’t like boys and I never will. I never liked them!’ Luisa said, getting her courage back. It was one thing for her father to be angry at her, another when he just didn’t believe her. ‘I like girls, dad. Only girls. I – I don’t want to be married to a boy, ever.’

‘You’re too young to know you’re gay.’

‘Why?’ Luisa asked. ‘I am almost 13! Why can I not know that I like girls now? When did you know you liked girls?’

‘I have always liked girls,’ her father laughed.

‘So have I!’ Luisa said. ‘So how is this any different?’

‘I guess it is not…’ her father said after thinking about it for a moment. ‘You have really thought about this, haven’t you?’ he asked.

‘Yes,’ Luisa said, looking down at the floor again. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said softly, feeling tears well in her eyes.

‘Don’t be sorry,’ her father said, getting up. ‘It’s okay. It doesn’t matter. I will always love you, Luisa.’ Her father hugged her, Luisa crying softly into his shoulder.

‘Shh, it’s okay. I’m glad you told me,’ he soothed, hugging his daughter close.

‘Really?’ Luisa asked, brushing her tears away.

‘Really,’ her father said, smiling at her. ‘It was just a bit of a surprise, but if you say you like girls and only girls. I believe you.’

‘Okay,’ Luisa said, showing her father a watery smile.

‘Is there a girl in particular you like?’ her father asked, showing an interested he never had before.

‘Yes, no, maybe,’ Luisa said, blushing slightly. There was one girl of course, but she didn’t want to tell her father about her yet. That was still her own little secret.

‘Okay,’ her father smiled, patting her on the shoulder. ‘I love you, sweetheart. And so would your mother.’

Luisa nodded, she had wondered what her mother would say about it. ‘I love you too, dad,’ Luisa said, feeling a lot lighter all of the sudden.

* * *

‘Where were you?’ Rafael asked curiously when she opened the door to their home. ‘You almost missed it!’

‘Talking with dad,’ Luisa said, feeling proud of the fact that she had.

‘About what?’ Rafael asked, dragging his big sister towards the TV where the show they always watched together was already on.

‘That I like girls instead of boys,’ Luisa said, pulling the open box of sweets towards her, sticking one in her mouth.

‘Okay,’ Rafael said. Luisa wasn’t sure if he completely understood or her just wasn’t listening. ‘I like girls, too. There’s this girl in my class, Emma, she’s very smart and very pretty. I shared my cookie with her.’

Okay, so maybe Rafael did understand and didn’t see the problem with it. Like she hadn’t when she was younger.

‘So tell me about Emma,’ Luisa smiled, watching the show with her brother while he gushed about how nice and amazing Emma was. All Rafael’s admiration for the girl reminded Luisa of the fact that there was one other person she really wanted to tell. But somehow that was more daunting than telling her father had been.

* * *

Luisa didn’t know if it she should be happy about it or not, but she hadn’t seen Rose in nearly a month. Meaning she’d had some time to figure out how she wanted to tell Rose, and _what_ she wanted to tell her exactly.

Because telling Rose she was gay was one thing, but telling Rose she _liked_ her was another. And after finding out that most girls didn’t like other girls, she was afraid to tell Rose out of fear that Rose would shut her out like Rachel and Marlene had.

After her little outburst in the cafeteria, the two girls had avoided her. Her other friends telling her it was because Rachel and Marlene thought it was wrong she was gay. Luisa didn’t particularly care, she didn’t want to be friends with them if they thought that anyway. And most of her friends seemed fine with it, so she was far from alone.

So while she didn’t care that Rachel and Marlene had left her, she _would_ care if Rose did. Rose meant too much to her, and she didn’t want to ruin it.

So that’s why she was nervously standing on the porch of Rose’s home, still not sure what to tell her best friend about her recent revelation.

‘Hey!’ Rose greeted as she opened the door, stepping through it to hug Luisa.

‘Hey,’ Luisa said, melting into the hug, mentally counting as she tried to figure out an appropriate time to pull away.

Five seconds seemed okay, just a friendly “I haven’t seen you in so long” hug. But after ten seconds Rose was still holding onto her, and Luisa couldn’t bring herself to break away.

‘Girls, are you coming inside?’ Sam called from the hallway, causing them to finally break apart.

‘Coming dad!’ Rose yelled over her shoulder, taking Luisa’s hand and dragging her inside.

‘I missed you!’ Rose said, walking up the stairs.

‘I missed you, too,’ Luisa said softly, feeling nervous.

Rose looked over at her with concern, not used to Luisa being this quiet. It was usually the other way around.

Last month the anniversary of her mother’s death (and by extent also Rose’s birthday) had passed and it had been a rough time for Rose. Luisa had called Rose to cheer her up and had done so every day after until they could see each other in person. But now, Luisa’s normal, unshakeable presence had disappeared.

‘Is everything okay?’ Rose asked as she closed her bedroom door behind them.

‘Yes, fine. Why do you ask?’ Luisa said quickly, faking a smile. Which Rose, knowing Luisa too well to be fooled, saw through right away.

‘Sit,’ Rose said, ushering Luisa to the couch, sitting down next to her and clasping Luisa’s hand between her own. ‘Talk to me?’

Luisa tried to pull away and deflect but Rose wouldn’t let go.

‘Luisa, I know something is bothering you. And you’re always there for me when I am upset. So please tell me what is wrong. Unless,’ she said, her eyes going wide. ‘Is it me? Did I do something wrong?’

That made Luisa spring into action. ‘No! No, not at all!’ Luisa said, squeezing Rose’s hand. ‘You could never. No, this is just about me. I- I have something I need to tell you. But, it’s hard for me. Because you might not like me afterwards,’ Luisa said, the words rushing out of her.

‘I will always like you,’ Rose said resolutely, smiling warmly at her. ‘So please tell me what is wrong.’

‘Well,’ Luisa started, taking a deep breath to gather her nerves. This was quite possibly the scariest thing she’d ever done. She didn’t want to lose Rose; she didn’t want this closeness between them to disappear.

And while Rose never talked about what boys she liked, and they _had_ kissed that one time nearly two years ago, that was so long ago it probably didn’t mean anything.

‘Go on,’ Rose encouraged, squeezing her hand.

‘Okay, so,’ Luisa said, trying to blink the tears that had formed in her eyes away. ‘I- I don’t like boys.’

Rose laughed. ‘Neither do I! Is that what you wanted to tell me?’

‘Yes, no. I’m- I’m not finished yet,’ Luisa said. ‘I don’t like boys, as in: I don’t want to kiss them or marry them. I – I don’t want a boyfriend. I want a girlfriend, I like girls. I’m gay,’ Luisa said, casting her eyes down as tears made their way down her cheeks. Waiting for Rose’s reaction.

Luisa flinched a little as Rose wrapped her arms around her neck, hugging her tightly.

‘That’s okay,’ she whispered softly, not releasing Luisa from the hug.

‘Are – Are you sure?’ Luisa asked, her arms still limply hanging beside her body. Too surprised to hug Rose back.

‘Of course I am sure!’ Rose said, still not pulling away from the hug.

Luisa felt the knot in her stomach untie, her body relaxed and she finally brought her arms up to return the hug.

She smiled as Rose hugged her. Rose hadn’t run from her, Rose was okay with it, they were still friends and nothing had changed.

‘I – I have to tell you something too,’ Rose said as she pulled away, her blue eyes seeking out Luisa’s brown. Luisa noticed Rose seemed a little nervous now as well, so she kept holding on to Rose’s hands.

She smiled encouragingly at Rose, silently telling her to continue.

‘I- I wasn’t really sure of it before. But, when I said I didn’t like boys, I meant it in the same way you did. I want a girlfriend too. I think I might be gay,’ Rose said, her voice light and wavering slightly.

Luisa smiled, and then laughed, pulling Rose into another hug.

Maybe everything would turn out alright, because right now, Luisa felt the happiest she’d ever been.

‘Luisa?’ Rose asked, pulling away from the hug a little so she could look at Luisa.

‘Yes?’ Luisa asked, Rose was so close to her she felt the urge to kiss her again swirl around her head.

‘I like- Would you- I-’ Rose stammered, she took a deep breath before continuing. ‘There is a particular girl I like…’

‘Oh,’ Luisa said, feeling her throat tighten a little. ‘That’s, that’s nice.’ She hoped that hadn’t sounded like the big lie it was.

‘No, wait!’ Rose said as she saw Luisa’s face fall. ‘I do like a girl, and I would like her to be my girlfriend. But-’ Rose groaned in frustration, running a hand through her hair, unable to find the words she needed. So instead of words, she thought actions might make her intentions clearer.

Luisa’s eyes went wide in shock as Rose leaned in and softly brushed her lips against Luisa’s, in a _real_ kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THEY KISSED! Can you believe it? My precious babies! 
> 
> Anyways, thank you for reading and I hoped you all liked this chapter, see you next week!
> 
> As always, comments are very much appreciated!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, in a complete change from Sin Week, have some happy gayby girlfriends!
> 
> Enjoy!

Luisa fidgeted nervously with the hem of her dress. It surprised her how often she got nervous when waiting for Rose. Even after being her girlfriend for two months, Luisa still got butterflies around Rose. So while the nerves weren’t _bad_ nerves, it was still a little strange. It was just Rose after all.

Right now, she was waiting for someone to open the door so she and Rose could go to their first party as a couple. Not that anybody but the two of them would _know_ that. But it mattered to Luisa, and it mattered to Rose.

So while Luisa was “out” (she still found it a strange word, she had never been “in”, she just hadn’t known) to her father and friends. Rose wasn’t yet.

Luisa understood why, because while Sam would probably be okay with it. They doubted Elena would be.

Luisa and Rose had both heard her talk about _those_ people before, so neither of them was looking forward to Elena finding out about them. So they had chosen to keep it a secret, which was surprisingly hard to do.

First of all, there were _a lot_ more phone calls between the two of them now. Nearly every day they talked on the phone for an hour, telling each other about their day and what they would do if they were together.

And when they _were_ together on a weekend or a rare Friday, it was hard not to kiss Rose or hold her hand as much as she wanted. Because even before Rose was her girlfriend, she’d been thinking about kissing her a lot, and now Rose actually _was_ her girlfriend, the need to kiss the redheaded girl had only increased.

As a result, Elena had almost walked in on them kissing in Rose’s room once. So since then they tried to be more careful. Because while they weren’t sure what exactly Elena would do, they both feared she’d do everything in her power to keep the two of them apart.

Luisa hated the hiding and the sneaking around, but there was nothing she could do about it. It wasn’t her choice to make and she didn’t have to keep living with Elena if things went south.

Luisa was shaking from her thoughts when she heard the door in front of her unlock and her nervous smile turned into a wide, genuine one as she saw Rose.

‘You look very pretty,’ Luisa complimented. And Rose _did_ look very nice in her white summer dress with her long hair falling past her shoulders in soft waves.

‘So do you,’ Rose said, warily looking around to check if anyone was around before stepping forward and quickly pecking Luisa on the lips.

Luisa blushed and looked down at her own dress in comparison; it was new and a lighter blue than Rose’s. She had started wearing more dresses lately, having grown over her hate for everything pink and girly.

‘Thank you,’ she said, meeting Rose’s beautiful blue eyes.

‘So are you ready to go?’ Luisa asked.

‘Yes, one second,’ Rose said, popping back inside. ‘Dad! I am leaving now!’ she yelled.

Sam, carrying the now three-year-old Derek on his arm, popped around the corner of the living room doorway. ‘Have fun, sweetheart! See you later!’

‘Bye Wose!’ Derek said, he still had trouble with his R’s. He called himself “Dee”, it was absolutely adorable.

‘Bye Derek!’ Rose smiled, she might not like Elena, she did like her baby brother. Which Luisa understood completely: she liked Rafael a lot too.

‘Say bye to Luisa, Derek,’ Sam said, bouncing Derek in his arms.

‘Bye Lusa!’ Trying very hard to get her name right.

‘Bye Derek,’ Luisa said, waving before Rose closed the door behind them.

‘I missed you,’ Luisa said, tangling her fingers between Rose’s as they walked towards the car waiting for them at the curb.

‘I missed you too,’ Rose smiled, squeezing her hand as they slid into the backseat of the car.

‘Hello Paul,’ Rose greeted the Solano’s usual driver.

‘Hello miss Ruvelle,’ Paul greeted, tipping his hat.

Rose giggled, the sound making Luisa smile.

‘So where are we going exactly?’ Rose asked as Paul stared driving.

‘It’s my friend’s birthday, you met her briefly at my party last month. Ella?’

Rose frowned, trying hard to remember. ‘Glasses?’

‘Yes, that’s Ella,’ Luisa smiled. ‘Her parents are throwing her a big party for her 13th birthday, with both girls and _boys_.’ They both scrunched up their noses; they still found every boy that wasn’t related to them (and on occasion even those two) annoying.

‘So I asked if I could bring you, and she said that was fine.’

‘Did you tell her about us?’ Rose asked, chewing on her bottom lip anxiously. She was very worried about their secret coming out, and the more people knew of it, the bigger that chance got.

Luisa shook her head. As long as Rose didn’t want her to tell anyone, Luisa wasn’t going to. ‘No, I just told her I would like to invite my best friend. She was cool with it. She thinks _you’re_ cool. She likes your art.’

‘You showed her my drawings?’ Rose asked, blushing prettily.

‘Well, I sort of had to. They’re hanging in my room and she knows I can’t draw, so... She liked the flower one,’ Luisa explained.

‘That’s nice of her to say,’ Rose said softly.

‘Well, she was just being honest. Your drawings are really good, Rose,’ Luisa said, knowing Rose was still struggling with her drawing after Elena had told her that art wasn’t a useful skill to have.

During the rest of the car ride, they talked about the things they hadn’t discussed over the phone yet. Mostly school related, like funny things their teachers had said or their friends had done. What was being taught in which subject and what they thought about it. Basically the things they had talked about before they became girlfriends.

Luisa had found that being girlfriends with Rose was remarkably like being best friends with Rose; just more kissing and slightly more handholding than before.

‘We’re here, ladies,’ Paul said as he pulled up into Ella’s house.

‘Thank you, Paul,’ Luisa and Rose said as they stepped out of the door was holding open for them.

Paul nodded, saying he would pick them up again later.

Luisa reluctantly let go of Rose’s hand as they approached the front door. ‘This is going to be fun, I promise,’ she said, smiling reassuringly.

Just as Rose was about to answer, the front door was thrown open and they were pulled inside by a very enthusiastic Ella.

‘Luisa! You made it!’ Ella said, hugging her friend tightly.

‘Hey Ella, happy birthday!’ Luisa smiled. ‘You remember Rose?’

Rose gave Ella a shy wave.

‘Of course, your sort of half-stepsister but not really,’ Ella smiled.

Luisa frowned, Rose wasn’t related to her, it was just that their half-brothers were each other’s half-brothers. Luisa had not once thought of Rose as her sister in any way. And she wasn’t about to start now.

‘She’s my best friend,’ Luisa corrected.

‘I know! I know!’ Ella laughed. ‘I was just teasing you. Hi Rose,’ the other girl said, turning towards Rose. ‘Glad you could make it! I am not sure if Luisa told you already, but I really like your drawings. Maybe you could teach me sometime.’

Rose blushed again, Luisa playfully elbowing her in the side. Proud of her girlfriend’s skills.

‘Thank you, and that would be fun,’ Rose smiled.

‘Great! Now let’s go in! It’s almost time for presents!’

Luisa smiled at Rose as they walked in, softly brushing the backs of their hands together as they walked. Not enough to get noticed by anyone but enough to give Rose some comfort in an unfamiliar environment.

Luisa had been at Ella’s house lots of times already, but even she had trouble recognizing the living room. The curtains were drawn and the lights were off, the only illumination coming from the colored disco lights placed strategically around the room.

There was music playing from big speakers near the windows, and there was a clear space in the middle of the room that was obviously supposed to be a dancefloor, but no one was dancing.

There was a group of boys Luisa vaguely recognized from school on one side of the room, and her friends were clustered directly across from them. The girls talking and giggling amongst themselves and the boys drinking soda from plastic cups and throwing chips at each other.

‘Charming,’ Luisa whispered to Rose, making the redhead laugh.

‘Dad! Everyone is here now! Can we do presents?’ Ella bellowed at her father who was manning the speakers for the night.

Mr. Cortez gave his daughter a thumbs-up and turned down the music.

Slowly the boys and girls walked to the middle of the room, forming a shape vaguely resembling a circle as they sat down on the ground and brought out their gifts.

For some reason, the boys and girls still didn’t mix, sticking exclusively to their own side of the room.

Luisa didn’t particularly care, she would gladly stay away from them as far as possible. But she still found it a little strange. Most of her friends had crushes on these boys, so why didn’t they just go sit with them?

She was about to ask Rose, who _was_ sitting next to her if she understood why, but she didn’t get the chance as Ella started unwrapping the first gift.

After that, they went around the circle, everyone wishing Ella a happy birthday before giving their gifts. It all went fairly quickly and after all the gifts had been unwrapped, the two groups separated again. The dancefloor remaining strangely empty while the music had started playing again minutes ago.

Luisa, who was getting tired off standing at the side drinking soda and eating chips, decided to take matters into her own hands and grabbed Rose’s and Ella’s hand, pulling them onto the dancefloor with her.

‘Luisa! What are you doing?’ Ella yelped. Rose too surprised to protest much.

‘We’re dancing!’ Luisa yelled, running back to the side to drag the other unwilling girls onto the dancefloor. ‘This is a dance party, and no one is dancing, I am going to change that.’

Luisa started moving her body to the beat, putting her hands on Ella’s hips to get her to move too. Slowly, the other girls started to join in, either jumping up and down or at least trying to dance as a popular song played through the speakers.

The boys were still standing lamely to the side, but Luisa didn’t care. She and her friends were having fun, and to her, that was all that mattered.

Rose was laughing too, dancing and jumping amidst her other friends, seemingly having a good time and that made Luisa smile even wider.

She grabbed Rose’s hands and twirled her around, playfully winking at her when they faced each other again. The twirl had been a little awkward as Rose was much taller than Luisa was, so she had to bend down to be able to fit underneath Luisa’s arms. It made them both laugh.

‘Hey! Twirl me!’ Ella said, taking Rose’s place.

‘Sure,’ Luisa laughed, spinning Ella around as well, releasing her just as one of the boys stepped onto the dance floor, making them bump into each other.

‘Hey,’ the boy said, looking down at the ground shyly. Luisa thought his name was Aaron or something. She was pretty sure Ella liked him.

‘Oh, hey,’ Ella said, suddenly all flustered.

‘Would you, maybe, wanna dance with me?’ Aaron-or-something asked.

Ella nodded, abandoning the group of dancing girls to dance with Aaron-or-something a little away from them.

Now one boy had braved the dancefloor, others soon followed. Most of the girls splitting off from the group to dance with one specific boy until only Rose, Luisa and two boys were left.

‘Hey!’ one of the boys said, tapping Luisa on the shoulder. ‘Your friend is cute, what’s her name?’

Luisa tried to keep a straight face, because while she agreed with him, Rose _was_ really cute, she didn’t like the way he was looking at her, and she _definitely_ didn’t want him to cut into her time dancing with Rose.

‘Her name is Rose, and she already has a boyfriend,’ Luisa said before turning away from him, focusing her attention back on Rose, grabbing her hands as they danced together.

Of course, Rose didn’t have a boyfriend; she had a girlfriend. But she had promised Rose not to tell, so she wouldn’t. And besides, there really wasn’t much difference between having a boyfriend and a girlfriend, they both meant that Rose would not be dancing with anyone else tonight.

The boy sulked off, his friend laughing and teasing him.

Luisa just smiled at Rose, enjoying being somewhere with her that wasn’t either of their homes. It was nice to see Rose smile this wide.

Suddenly the music changed to a much slower number.

Ella yelled something at her father, probably saying that he was embarrassing her (parents were always very good at that) but the music didn’t change.

The freshly formed couples on the dance floor groaned like this was a very big burden on them, but started to slow dance anyway.

The boys on the side, obviously thinking they had a shot now, approached them again.

Luisa gave them a look before throwing her arms around Rose’s neck, pulling her closer to her and starting to sway slowly in time with the music.

Rose didn’t move at first, but then she slowly relaxed, her body moving in time with Luisa’s as they danced together.

Luisa had always thought that slow dancing with someone would be awkward, but that was probably because she had always imagined she’d have to do it with a boy. But dancing with Rose was anything but awkward and was really very nice.

They were dancing very close together. Luisa’s arms slung loosely around Rose’s neck as Rose’s hands had ended up on her middle. They moved perfectly in sync and Luisa could smell the flowery soap Rose used. She could feel the hot puffs of Rose’s breath on her cheek and all of that made Luisa wish that the song would never end. Because when it did, they would have to break apart and Luisa didn’t really want that.

‘This is nice,’ Rose whispered, smiling softly, her cheeks a little red.

Luisa looked up at her, feeling her own cheeks burn as well as she nodded. ‘It is.’

Eventually the song faded out, all the couple on the dance floor staring at each other in the few seconds of silence between songs before breaking apart with a laugh. Pretending what they just did was completely embarrassing.

After the one slow song, it became of mix of fast and slow songs, Luisa and Rose always finding each other to slow dance together. And while every dance was still as nice as the first one, as the evening progressed, many of the boy/girl couples started to end their slow dancing with a kiss.

Luisa understood perfectly well why they would want to kiss; she really wanted to kiss Rose too. And it was just so unfair that she couldn’t because they were both girls. If either of them had been a boy Elena wouldn’t have had a problem with it and they could just kiss and they would not have to hide and lie about it. It was simply unfair and Luisa hated it.

So a little later, when they were safely in the back of the car after the party, Luisa leaned in and quickly kissed her. ‘I’ve wanted to do that all night,’ she whispered after she pulled back.

‘Me too,’ Rose smiled, resting her head on Luisa’s shoulder for the rest of the ride.

Luisa had thought that Paul would have been watching the road while they kissed, but when she met the driver’s eyes in the mirror after the kiss, he winked at her.

Luisa felt herself color. Okay, so there was _one_ person who knew their secret. That wasn’t too bad…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think! Good or critical, comments are always welcome!
> 
> (Also this fic has a lot of birthdays, I seriously don't know why...)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Friday again! Meaning it's time for our two favorite gaybies to be incredibly adorable together! Today they go on a date! (And it sounds like I am reading to children, I apologize)
> 
> Anyway, enjoy!

Luisa smiled adoringly at Rose, who was sitting a few feet in front of her, hunched over her desk as she was concentrating on a drawing.

They had been dating for over three months now, and Luisa thought things were going well. And why wouldn’t they? It was Rose. They had been friends for two years before they became girlfriends. They knew each other and they had always been close, so now they were just a little closer.

As she watched Rose draw, Luisa thought about how lucky she was. While her father didn’t know about her and Rose, he did know that she was gay, and he was okay with it. If Luisa was being honest, not that much had changed in their relationship. Possibly nothing had. He still worked as much as before and when they talked, it was never if she’d found a girlfriend yet.

But she knew it was different for Rose, who had to carefully keep their relationship hidden, as well as the fact that she liked girls. Luisa could feel Rose was struggling with it, knew it from the way Rose tried to keep her distance from her and other girls when they were being supervised. As if one wrong interaction could out her.

Luisa wished she could help, make Rose feel more at ease with herself, with their relationship. But it was very hard when Elena kept talking about “those people” not knowing her step-daughter and her ex-stepdaughter were part of “those people”.

It hurt Luisa too when she spoke like that, but she knew it was worse for Rose, who was around Elena all the time, and not just two days a week.

Luisa quietly got up off Rose’s bed, approaching the oblivious redhead.

‘What are you drawing?’ Luisa asked before putting her hand on Rose’s shoulder to avoid startling her.

‘Oh, just something for art class,’ Rose said, smiling shyly.

Luisa smiled back, her own smile wide and encouraging. It had taken a lot of courage for Rose to pick art as an extra-curricular with Elena breathing down her neck to do something useful, like the debate team. So as a compromise, Rose was now doing both. And according to Rose, the debate team was actually a lot of fun.

‘Can I see it?’ Luisa smiling sweetly.

‘No,’ Rose said resolutely, turning back to her drawing with a smile.

‘What? Why not?’ Luisa whined, not used to hearing the word “no” from Rose.

‘Because it isn’t finished yet.’

‘Fine,’ Luisa sighed, dramatically falling back on the bed, making Rose laugh.

‘You can see it when it’s done,’ Rose said to make it up to her.

‘Will you at least tell me about it then?’ Luisa asked, raising herself up on her elbows so she could look at Rose.

Rose thought it over for a moment.

‘The exercise was to draw love without drawing people.’

‘That sounds difficult,’ Luisa mused, thinking about how she would do it.

Rose shrugged. ‘I think I have found a way to do it.’

‘Well, I can’t wait to see it then,’ Luisa grinned, putting her hands behind her head as she stared up at the ceiling.

The silence returned to the room. It wasn’t because they had nothing to say, but sometimes the silence was just as comfortable as talking would be.

And right now Luisa was trying to get some of her thoughts in order.

‘Rose,’ she said slowly after spending a couple of minutes in quiet contemplation.

‘Yea?’ Rose asked, turning around in her desk chair, a smudge of grey pencil smeared across her cheek, making her look even more adorable than she already was.

‘We have been dating for three months now, right?’

’95 days, yes,’ Rose smiled happily.

‘So, do you, maybe, want to go on a real date sometime? Like, to see a movie or something?’

Rose laughed as Luisa nervously fidgeted with her hands. ‘You do know that we are already dating right? There is no need to be nervous when you ask me out, idiot.’

‘Well, I am an idiot, okay?’ Luisa said, starting to grin as well. ‘But I am _your_ idiot.’

Rose rolled her eyes at the cheesy line but her smile told Luisa Rose had thought it was at the very least endearing.

‘So do you want to go on a date with me?’ Luisa asked. ‘Because all this time that we have been dating, we have never actually _been_ on a date.’

‘We went to Ella’s party last month,’ Rose reminded her.

‘Doesn’t count, I hadn’t planned it as a date,’ Luisa said.

‘Then I guess it is probably time for us to go on a real date,’ Rose said, blue eyes sparkling with amusement.

‘Great,’ Luisa smiled, getting up off the bed. If she was going to ask Rose out, she was going to do it properly.

‘Rose,’ she started. ‘Would you like to go on a date with me tomorrow. There is a movie showing that I think we would both really like.’

‘Yes, I would love to go on a date with you,’ Rose smiled.

‘Great,’ Luisa beamed, quickly kissing Rose on the lips before moving back to her spot on the bed, picking up her book and continuing to read. Tomorrow was going to be fun.

* * *

Luisa knocked quietly on Rose’s door, quickly running a hand through her hair to make sure it wasn’t tangled: it was their first date, she wanted to look nice.

‘One minute!’ Rose yelled back.

Luisa laughed, she didn’t know why Rose needed this much time to get ready. She was already the most beautiful girl Luisa had ever seen.

But when Rose opened the door, smiling shyly. Luisa couldn’t help but be taken aback by how amazing Rose looked.

‘You look very pretty,’ Luisa said softly, taking her time to memorize every little detail about Rose.

‘So do you,’ Rose smiled. ‘Really pretty,’ she blushed slightly.

‘So, are you ready to go?’ Luisa asked, reaching up to brush a stray eyelash off Rose’s cheek.

Rose stood very still as Luisa carefully removed the hair.

‘Make a wish,’ Luisa said, holding the lash out for Rose.

Rose laughed, closing her eyes as she blew the eyelash off Luisa’s palm.

‘What did you wish for?’ Luisa asked, hopping down the stairs, excited for their first date.

‘I can’t tell you or it won’t come true,’ Rose smiled, laughing softly as she saw Luisa’s pout.

‘So unfair,’ Luisa grumbled, skipping the last three steps of the stairs and landing on the floor with a bang.

‘No jumping off the stairs!’ Elena’s voice yelled from somewhere around the house.

‘Sorry!’ Luisa yelled back, not feeling sorry in the slightest. ‘How does she even hear that?’ she whispered to Rose.

Rose shrugged. ‘She hears everything.’

‘We’re going out!’ Luisa yelled, smiling because of the double meaning of that sentence as she took Rose’s hand and pulled her through the front door. Slamming it closed for good measure.

Rose looked at her.

‘What?’ Luisa smiled innocently. ‘It was the wind.’

‘And I am sure you tripped down the last couple of steps as well.’

‘I never trip,’ Luisa grinned cockily. Her foot immediately catching on a slightly uneven stone and sending her sprawling to the ground.

‘Careful!’ Rose said, grabbing Luisa before she could truly fall to the ground.

‘Thank you,’ Luisa said, continuing on like nothing had just happened. ‘Come on! We can’t be late!’ she called over her shoulder as she ran down the rest of the drive way. Rose taking off after her.

‘Paul! Open the door!’ Luisa yelled as she spotted their driver standing at the side of the car.

Paul, being the only one who knew about their relationship, was the perfect person to drive them to their first date. He also didn’t question why Luisa was running towards him at full speed and just opened the door.

‘Luisa! What are you doing?’ Rose panted as she sprinted after the unexpectedly fast brunette.

‘I just couldn’t wait any longer for our date to get started!’ Luisa grinned, pulling Rose into the car and kissing her quickly on the cheek. ‘Drive, Paul!’

‘Yes, miss Alver,’ Paul smiled, looking at the two smiling and blushing girls in the backseat of his car.

* * *

‘So what movie are we seeing?’ Rose asked as they joined the queue in front of the theatre.

‘Well, I’ll guess you will see,’ Luisa said, trying for an air of mystery.

‘Yes, as soon as we get to the front of the line and you get our tickets,’ Rose said, rolling her eyes.

‘When did you become this witty?’ Luisa asked, smirking slightly.

‘Puberty,’ was Rose’s answer to that question. Making them both laugh.

‘Well, I like it,’ Luisa smiled, bumping Rose with her elbow. ‘So why don’t you go be witty in the snack line and get us some popcorn?’

‘Anything else?’ Rose asked, dancing out of the line.

‘Chocolate!’ Luisa yelled after her. ‘Just anything chocolate!’

Rose waved at her over her shoulder to indicate she had heard and walked off in the direction of the bar.

Luisa smiled, she liked it that Rose was becoming bolder and less shy. Rose was really funny and more people should know that about her. It was just a shame Elena was making it so hard for Rose to come out of her shell.

‘I got the tickets!’ Luisa said as she joined Rose, taking the container of popcorn from Rose’s hands.

‘And I got the snacks,’ Rose smiled, popping a piece of popcorn into her mouth. ‘So will you finally tell me what movie we are seeing?’

‘Fine,’ Luisa sighed, pretending that telling Rose was absolutely the last thing she wanted to do. She tried to contain her grin as she handed over the ticket and saw the surprise and excitement grow in Rose’s eyes, her mouth falling open.

‘I didn’t know this was out yet!’ Rose smiled.

‘Premiere is today, actually. I thought you might like to see it,’ Luisa smiled, happy Rose was happy.

‘Of course I want to see it! It is based on my favorite book! Thank you!’ Rose said, flying around Luisa’s neck and kissing her quickly.

‘Yeah, let’s just – go in,’ Luisa said, suddenly shy as Rose had just kissed her in public.

‘Yes, let’s!’ Rose said, pulling Luisa along by her hand, her excitement not yet fading.

* * *

Luisa smiled as Rose silently grasped her hand as the movie started playing. It seemed she had made a good choice in the movie. Rose was fascinated by it from the first moment the characters appeared on screen.

Luisa had wanted to see the movie too, but she was currently more enamored with Rose watching the movie than watching the actual screen.

Rose just looked so happy and entranced, only sometimes glancing away from the screen to see if Luisa was enjoying the movie too.

Luisa always smiled back at her, squeezing Rose’s hand. Knowing for sure that this was the best date ever.

Eventually, when the action sequences faded and the more emotional stuff appeared, Rose leaned in closer, resting her head on Luisa’s shoulder.

Luisa grinned even wider, resting her own head against Rose’s as they watched the rest of the movie together.

* * *

‘That was so cool!’ Rose said in an awed whisper as the exited the theatre.

Luisa smiled. ‘It really was.’

‘It was just so amazing to see it happening! I love reading, but really seeing it? All moving so fast, with real people? It’s incredible. Of course, there were some differences with the book…’

Luisa laughed.

‘What?’ Rose asked, elbowing Luisa playfully in the side.

‘You’re a giant nerd,’ Luisa said fondly, elbowing Rose back.

‘I am not!’ Rose said, faux-offended.

‘Yeah you are! With your whole “the book was better than the movie” thing.’

‘Well, it was!’ Rose laughed, throwing some left-over popcorn at Luisa’s head. ‘And you thought so too!’

‘That’s not relevant right now,’ Luisa laughed, dodging the air strike of salty snacks.

‘You’re a nerd too,’ Rose laughed, hugging Luisa and kissing her on the cheek as they walked up to Paul, who was waiting for them at the curb.

‘Did you have a nice time, ladies?’ Paul said as he opened the door for them.

Rose nodded, still smiling widely as she tried to dodge Luisa’s pokes.

‘Yes, we did!’ Luisa laughed, finally having succeed in poking Rose in the stomach, making the redhead squeal with laughter.

‘So where to now?’ Paul asked as he took his place in the driver’s seat.

‘Home, I guess,’ Luisa shrugged.

‘Can I make a suggestion?’ Paul asked. ‘It’s still early, why don’t you two get some ice cream before returning home?’

‘Would you like to get ice cream, Rose?’ Luisa asked, still smiling.

‘Yeah, I’d like that,’ Rose nodded. ‘Even if you are a nerd.’

‘Well, you’re a bigger nerd,’ Luisa laughed, pecking Rose on the cheek.

‘So ice cream, then?’ Paul asked, trying to hide a smile.

‘Yeah,’ Rose and Luisa said in unison.

* * *

‘This was a really great date, thank you,’ Rose smiled as she stirred her milkshake with a straw.

‘It really was,’ Luisa smiled, shoveling some of her ice cream on the tiny pink spoon and offering it to Rose.

‘I had fun,’ Rose continued, smiling softly as she swallowed the ice cream.

‘Me too. We should do this again soon.’ It really had been fun. They had never really hung out outside of one of their homes, when there was no one around who knew them. Who would judge them.

It was nice to just be able to hug Rose, or kiss Rose without having to be afraid someone might say something off it.

And it was stupid that they had to be so careful, because if one of them had been a boy, no one would have batted an eye. They wouldn’t have to sneak around and it could just always be like this, this casual. Just, _easy_.

Like a relationship was supposed to be, fun and nice and not necessary to keep from the important people in your life. Now, it was debatable if Elena should count as “important”, but it was an undeniable fact that she was a big part of their lives, especially Rose’s as she was her stepmother.

‘We should, maybe I can pick the movie next time,’ Rose mused, stealing another bite form Luisa’s ice cream.

‘Or we could do something else, go to the park.’

‘The park?’ Rose questioned, one eyebrow raised teasingly.

‘Yes, the park,’ Luisa said, unbothered. ‘We can go feed the ducks.’

‘Feed the ducks?’

‘Yes, I didn’t know it echoed in here,’ Luisa grinned, taking her ice cream back from Rose.

‘Nerd,’ Rose said under her breath.

‘You’re a nerd,’ Luisa laughed, enjoying the gentle teasing between them.

‘Well, you’re a cute nerd,’ Rose smiled.

‘So are you,’ Luisa smiled.

‘Good,’ Rose smiled. ‘I am still not feeding the ducks with you.’

‘Fine,’ Luisa sighed. ‘I’ll leave our next date entirely up to you, then.’

* * *

‘My wish came true,’ Rose said suddenly as they were standing on the porch in front of Rose’s house at the end of their date.

It was Sunday so Luisa wouldn’t stay the night, meaning that this would be goodbye for at least another week.

‘What?’ Luisa asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she had no idea what Rose was talking about.

‘This afternoon, before our date, I made a wish as I blew the eyelash away. I wished we would have a nice first date.’

‘Oh,’ Luisa said, suddenly remembering. ‘Yeah, it was a lot of fun. So, I’ll see you again next week for our second one?’

Rose nodded. ‘I already have a plan.’

‘I look forward to it. But I’ll miss you in the meantime.’

‘I’ll miss you too,’ Rose said, leaning in for a soft kiss.

‘What do you think you are doing!?’ Elena’s loud and obviously angry voice yelled, causing the two young girls to jump apart as if they had been burned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's not going to be be good...
> 
> I'll see you again next week where we'll find out what happens after Elena just caught them kissing...


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, this is not a fun chapter. At all. So a warning for homophobic language and slurs used throughout the whole chapter. If this is upsetting to you, I suggest you don't read it. I will explain what happened in the note at the end so you could continue reading next week if you wanted to. It will be happier, I promise.
> 
> Writing this chapter made me sad, but it had to be written for the story to continue...

Elena stormed forwards, grabbing Rose roughly by the arm and pulling her away from Luisa.

‘What were you doing?’ Elena asked angrily, looking down at Rose, whose eyes were big from shock.  ‘Well?’ she said, the single word dripping with venom.

Rose didn’t say anything, tears starting to form in her eyes. They had been so careful for months. And one quick kiss goodbye and suddenly their greatest fear had come true. Out of all people who could have walked in on them, of course it had to be Elena.

Luisa sprang into action as a single tear rolled down Rose’s cheek. She didn’t want her to cry, ever. So she had to get Elena’s attention off of Rose, and the best way to do that was to make Elena focus on her instead.

‘We were kissing,’ Luisa said firmly, staring Elena down.

On the plus side: her plan had worked. Elena was no longer glaring at Rose. On the other, her angry frown now focused solely on Luisa.

Luisa had been on the receiving end of that glare more than once when she was younger. But in the years she had forgotten just how intense it was. So without meaning to, Luisa took a step back.

‘What are you? A _queer_?’ Elena snapped.

The word sounded so _wrong_ coming from Elena. Angry, disgusted. Like the word was poisonous and left a bad taste in her mouth.

Luisa didn’t know how to respond. Because she _was_ queer. But judging from the way Elena was saying it, she obviously thought it was a _bad_ thing. And Luisa wasn’t about to agree with her on that. Before she could even form a response, Elena started yelling at her again.

‘You did this to her!’

Now Luisa was really confused. She hadn’t done anything to anyone. Least of all Rose.

‘Elena, what’s going on?’ Sam asked from the doorway, obviously confused by how angry his wife was and how shocked Rose and Luisa looked.

‘They were _kissing_ 1’ Elena hissed as she turned towards Sam. Still holding onto Rose’s arm.

‘What?’ Sam asked, his confusion only growing. ‘Kissing?’

‘Your daughter is a queer,’ Elena bit out, finally letting go off Rose’s arm.

Rose, free for the moment, immediately fled towards Luisa, half hiding behind her. Not wanting to see her father’s expression change from surprise to the same disgust so very evident on Elena’s face.

Without taking her eyes off the two adults in front of her, Luisa reached back and grabbed Rose’s hand in an attempt to offer any small comfort she could. She had the feeling this was about to get a lot worse.

‘What?’ Sam asked again, his eyes darting to his daughter and then back to Elena. Still not sure what was going on.

‘Gay, dad. I’m- I’m gay,’ Rose said softly, her bottom lip wobbling slightly.

Sam’s mouth fell open, the other shoe finally dropping for him while Elena just looked more furious than before.

‘You and Luisa…’ Sam stammered, vocalizing his thoughts as he tried to get them in order.

The only thing Luisa could think of was that this was not at all how her father had reacted to the news. And how very lucky she was that he hadn’t.

Rose nodded. ‘She’s my girlfriend.’

Sam nodded slowly, his understanding of the situation growing.

‘Well!’ Elena snapped, turning to Sam. ‘Say something!’

Sam opened his mouth and slowly spoke, obviously still trying to put the information he’d just received in the right order.

‘Let’s go inside.’

Whatever all three women out on the porch had expected him to say; that wasn’t it.

‘We are drawing a crowd and I think we need to talk about it some more,’ Sam explained. And indeed Elena’s yelling had drawn some neighbors to their windows.

Elena muttered something under her breath as she stomped past Sam, Rose and Luisa following timidly. Rose still avoiding her father’s gaze. Not wanting to see his disappointment or anger.

Luisa gripped Rose’s hand a little tighter as they walked into the house. Fearing what was coming next. Because this was exactly why they had been so secretive about their relationship; this exact reaction.

Luisa waned to sit down next to Rose but Elena was staring daggers at her and pointing at a chair across from the table. She wanted to ignore her ex-stepmother and sit next to Rose to offer some comfort, but at the same time she didn’t want to make matters worse. So after a brief mental debate she sat down on the chair Elena was pointing to; the one furthest removed from Rose.

Sam sat down next to Luisa, leaving Elena to take the seat next to Rose.

There was a moment of tense silence, nobody speaking but many words hanging unsaid between them.

‘Tell them this can’t continue,’ Elena hissed at Sam.

Up until this moment, Sam had been looking at Rose, who was studiously avoiding his gaze in favor of staring at her hands.

But Luisa had been watching Sam, and he didn’t look angry or disappointed. He just looked confused and maybe a little sad.

He turned towards Elena as he answered her. ‘I am still not certain what is going on. You say they were kissing?’

‘Yes,’ Elena bit out angrily. ‘I am sure it was Luisa’s idea. She has always been a problem.’

That one stung. But Luisa bit her tongue and kept her mouth shut. This wasn’t about her. It was about Rose. And it was better not to antagonize Elena even further.

‘Rose?’ Sam asked softly, waiting for his daughter to look at him.

‘You were kissing Luisa, because she’s your girlfriend?’

Rose nodded, timidly averting her eyes after less than a second of eye contact.

‘I don’t understand why you have to ask her that this many times,’ Elena said angrily. ‘We have to put a stop to this. It’s unnatural.’

‘It is not unnatural,’ Luisa bit out, finally having enough of the way Elena was speaking about the both of them. ‘I love Rose. And I don’t care that she’s a girl. Or that I am a girl. I love her.’

There was a soft gasp from across the table as Rose stared at her with big eyes. Because Luisa had never actually said that to her before. And even in this very stressful moment, it was a good to hear.

Elena laughed mockingly. ‘You’re too young to know what love is. This is just a phase the both of you are going to grow out of. And in the mean time you will not drag this family’s name through the mud. This is going to end. Now.’

Sam looked like he was about to say something but he was left hanging with his mouth open as Elena stared daggers at him. And suddenly something in his eyes changed, determination turning his normally kind face into an unreadable mask.

‘Rose,’ he said softly. ‘You can’t be in love with Luisa. It is not okay.’

Luisa saw Rose further shrink into herself at her father’s words. They were said kindlier than Elena’s, but they still carried the same painful connotation; that what they had was wrong.

‘I don’t know if you’re gay or not. But you can’t show it. It is not accepted. You won’t get anywhere with it. You can’t get married. You can’t have children. People will avoid and shun you. Just stop this now before it is too late.’

Anger started coursing through Luisa’s veins. Sam’s words had found their mark in Rose and silent tears started rolling down her cheeks.

‘I don’t think you and Luisa should see each other anymore until this goes away,’ Sam said, Elena nodding in agreement.

‘It’s not going to go away,’ Luisa grumbled but no one heard her.

‘And don’t tell anyone about this,’ Elena added. ‘The shame…’

She was interrupted when the doorbell rang.

As Sam got up to open the door, Luisa reached across the table for Rose’s hand. But just before she reached her, Rose withdrew from her hand. Purposely avoiding Luisa’s touch. And that stung more than any of the words the adults had said.

She could imagine how Rose was feeling, and that she probably didn’t hadn’t meant to shy away from Luisa. So Luisa was more upset with the situation than she was with Rose. Because Sam and Elena had made it so that she couldn’t hug her girlfriend to offer comfort. The easy, happy atmosphere from their date had faded so much it was like it hadn’t even happened at all.

There was muffled arguing coming from the hallway. Luisa’s ears pricking up as she heard a familiar but unexpected voice.

‘Dad?’ Luisa said as her father entered the kitchen, engaged in a hushed argument with Sam. The two of them had never liked each other and over the years, matters hadn’t improved much.

‘Luisa,’ her father said, sounding weirdly relieved to see her. ‘Paul called me, he told me something happened?’

Now Luisa was really confused? Paul had called her father because Elena was yelling at them, and her father had come over immediately? He must trust Paul a lot...

‘What is going on?’ Emilio asked, turning to Elena, completely ignoring Sam who was standing much closer to him.

‘They were _kissing_ ,’ Elena bit out, glaring at Luisa.

‘You and Rose?’ Emilio asked, looking at his still stunned daughter.

Luisa nodded mechanically.

‘Is Rose the girl you told me you liked?’ he asked with a small smile.

Luisa nodded again, surprised her father even remember that conversation.

‘You _knew_?’ Elena hissed. ‘You knew what your daughter was and you didn’t warn us.’

‘ _Never_ talk about my daughter in that way again,’ her father said. He sounded calm, but Luisa knew from experience that was what he sounded like when he was truly angry. ‘She is not a what. And there was no need to warn you about anything. She is not dangerous. She does not carry some lethal virus. She’s a 13-year-old girl with a crush.’

‘She’s a queer! And she turned my daughter into one too!’ Sam said.

Luisa immediately turned to Rose as the redhead started to sob softly at her father’s words. She had been okay when Elena called her that. But with her own father turning so viciously on her, Rose’s will finally broke and she started to cry.

Luisa want to rush over, to take her hand and get her out of this room full of yelling people. But her father had put his hand on her shoulder, giving her a sympathetic look that told her to stay put.

Emilio turned to Sam. ‘There is nothing wrong with these girls. They like each other. They kiss. It doesn’t matter that they are both girls. They’re happy.’

‘It’s _wrong,’_ Elena said, siding up next to Sam. ‘And on top of that they are basically sisters.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. There is no blood relation. Their half-brothers are each other’s half-brothers. That counts for nothing.’

‘You-’ Sam threatened, taking a step closer to her father. It was strange to see Rose’s father like this. He was usually calm and mild-mannered. But right now, he looked ready to punch someone. And Luisa really hoped it wouldn’t come to that. The situation was bad enough as it was.

Luisa looked over at Rose, and felt her heart break into even smaller pieces. Rose was still crying, her arms tightly wrapped around her knees as tears streamed out of red rimmed eyes.

She couldn’t stand Rose looking so lost and alone any longer so Luisa broke free from her father’s grasp. Moving to Rose’s side to hug the crying girl.

Rose buried her face in Luisa’s shoulder and clung to Luisa as the adults continued to argue. The subjects of their anger currently forgotten.

‘Hey,’ Luisa said as Rose’s sobs eased a little. ‘It will be okay. I promise it will be okay.’ She couldn’t promise that, she _shouldn’t_ promise that. Because she had no actual proof that it would be. Sam seemed to be firmly on Elena’s side now, and Elena definitely wasn’t on theirs.

‘I’m here for you. I will always be here for you,’ Luisa whispered, wrapping Rose in an even tighter hug. Not wanting to let go for even a second, fearing the worst for the future of their relationship.

And worst did come to pass. After a couple more minutes Sam angry voice reached her ears.

‘I do not want to see your daughter near mine ever again.’

‘Dad!’ Luisa yelled, silently pleading her father to fix this, to do _something_. But she knew that there was nothing he could do.

‘You are making your daughter miserable. You should know that,’ Emilio said as he waved Luisa over. Ready to go.

Luisa shook her head. She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t abandon Rose. Not with these people, who called her _queer_ and _wrong_ and _unnatural_.

Rose had come so far; she had become so much braver in the years Luisa had known her, and now she feared that had all been undone by the cruelty of her parents.

‘There is nothing wrong with these girls. Nothing,’ Emilio said, putting his hand on Luisa’s shoulder and pulling her up, but away from Rose.

That’s when Luisa started crying too. She didn’t want to say goodbye to Rose. She rushed forwards again and wrapped Rose in a hug. She wouldn’t believe that this was to be the last time they saw each other. But she didn’t want to take the risk in case it was.

‘I love you,’ Luisa whispered before pulling away.

‘I love you, too,’ Rose hiccupped between her sobs.

‘Come on, Luisa,’ her father said, guiding her out of the suddenly inhospitable house.

The door slammed shut behind them and Luisa looked over her shoulder to see Rose looking at her through the window.

Luisa put on a brave smile, wanting to show Rose that everything was going to be okay. That nothing, especially their parents, would stand in their way.

‘I can’t leave her, dad,’ Luisa said softly as she and her father got into his car. ‘She needs me. You heard what Elena and Sam said to her! About us!’

‘I know, sweetheart. I know. But there is nothing we can do. I’m sorry.’

‘Why were they so angry, dad? We were doing nothing wrong, we were just kissing,’ Luisa said, the last words coming out a little shaky as her throat closed up and tears started rolling down her cheeks.

‘I know, honey. I know. Sometimes people are just afraid of things that are different. They think it’s wrong.’

‘Is it?’ Luisa had never questioned that before. She knew it wasn’t, but the hatred and disgust in Elena’s voice when she spoke about queers and gays made her think that _something_ must be wrong. Why would it make her so angry otherwise?

‘No, sweetheart. No. There’s nothing wrong with you. Or with Rose. Elena is the one who is wrong.’

‘What if she tells Rafael it’s wrong. That I am wrong. What if he hates me too?’ Luisa asked, her breathing growing shallow as she thought about her little brother being as angry as Elena.

‘I don’t think she will tell him. And if she does. Rafael is a smart boy. He knows that there is nothing wrong with you.’

‘I love her, dad,’ Luisa cried, thinking of Rose all alone in that house with people who hated her and how she was unable to do anything about it.

‘I know, honey. And that’s why you shouldn’t give up.’

‘But-’ Luisa stammered, looking up at her father. ‘Sam said…’

‘Listen, sweetheart. When you love someone, you don’t just give up on them. I know you love Rose, and she loves you. So you can’t give up the moment things get tough.’

Luisa nodded, recognizing the far-off look in her father’s eyes. ‘You’re talking about mom, right?’ He only ever looked like that when he was thinking of her mother.

‘Yes. I’m talking about mom,’ her father said. ‘Her parents didn’t want us to be together either. But that didn’t stop us. Because we loved each other so much. So don’t let people stop you. You know what you’re worth.’

‘Thank you, dad,’ Luisa said, wiping her eyes. She really had a great father. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you, too,’ Emilio said, patting his daughter’s back softly.

She looked at the road in front of them and took a couple of deep breaths: she had to come up with a plan, because she was not going to give up on Rose. Not now and not ever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What basically happened in this chapter was that Elena did indeed turn out to be a homophobe. Sam sided with her and they forbid the girls from ever seeing each other again. But Emilio (who for the first time in his life deserves a great father award) tells Luisa not to give up on love and Luisa definitely isn't going to. So the chapter ends on that hopeful note.
> 
> Comments and critiques on this chapter are very welcome. It definitely wasn't easy to write and I would love to hear what could have been better.
> 
> Thank you for reading and I promise the next update won't be as sad. (I really hate doing this to Rose and Luisa. I hate it)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A good summary of this chapter is "Everything sucks" That is not a comment on the quality of this chapter (or maybe it is, let me know)
> 
> Enjoy!

Luisa rushed over as soon as she saw Rose walk through the park gates.

‘Hey!’ she greeted, wrapping her arms around the dejected looking girl.

After the discovery of their relationship two weeks ago, Rose had withdrawn into herself almost as muc h as she had when her mother had died. And to make matters worse, Luisa couldn’t call or come over to cheer her up. The no-contact rule strongly enforced.

She had tried calling once, but Sam had picked up, telling Luisa in no uncertain terms not to call again. Luisa hadn’t dared. Worried what consequences her actions might have for Rose as Rose had not called her back.

Contacting Rose had gotten very difficult thanks to this, and she knew that Rose needed her. Because she needed Rose. She had missed her terribly in the last two weeks. All this time of no contact was making her sad. And she knew it must be worse for Rose.

So now, more than two full weeks after the fact, this was the first time they actually saw each other. That they could actually talk about what had happened and try to figure out what to do next.

And Luisa feared that Rose might want to break up. Because speaking once every two weeks was no basis for a relationship. They only reason they were talking now was because she had employed Rafael to give Rose a note, telling her to meet her here.

It was strange using her little brother as a carrier pigeon. But it was the only way they could talk. Because she was not giving up on Rose, even if she was afraid of what Rose might say.

Rafael know something had happened between Luisa and his mother, just not exactly what. But he knew how to keep a secret and was happy to be included in such a grown-up thing.

So thanks to him, the both of them could finally talk. It sucked that they had to do it like this, but it was better than nothing.

‘Hey,’ Rose said, her small smile not reaching her eyes.

‘I missed you,’ Luisa said, hugging Rose again.

‘I missed you, too,’ Rose said, nervously looking around before quickly pecking Luisa on the lips.

The contact lasted for less than a second. But it made Luisa feel a little better, at least Rose wasn’t so scared that she wouldn’t kiss her at all. She was just cautious. Which Luisa more than understood.

‘How long can you stay?’ Luisa asked, taking Rose’s hand as they walked over to a small bench near the pond. She really had missed the other girl.

‘Not long. My parents think I am still at school. Working on something for the debate team. My dad is picking me up in 30 minutes.’

‘And you still have to get back.’

Rose nodded, knowing that they only had around 20 minutes together if they really pushed it. And twenty minutes was not a lot of time. Especially as they had so much things to talk about.

‘I am glad you agreed to see me.’ It sounded weirdly formal, Luisa thought as she spoke the words. But before she had figured out the Rafael messaging system. She had initially been worried to Rose might not even want to talk to her after what had happened. Because it was essentially her fault that both Elena and Sam were now angry with Rose.

‘Of course! I wanted to see you! I missed you so much,’ Rose said softly, looking shocked. ‘I was worried you might not want to see me… I am sorry for what happened.’

‘You are sorry? You have nothing to be sorry for! You did nothing wrong! I did!’

‘No! I kissed you. And I knew I shouldn’t have. I ruined everything. I am so sorry,’ Rose said, tears welling up in her eyes.

‘Don’t cry,’ Luisa said, wiping at Rose’s cheek to brush away the single tear. ‘It was my fault. I wanted to take you on a real date. What we had was perfectly okay and then I had to change it.’

‘I loved our date,’ Rose said, now it was her turn to wipe tears off Luisa’s cheek. ‘It was just what happened after that sucked.’

Luisa smiled a little. ‘Yeah, that really sucked. How are doing?’ she asked, squeezing Rose’s hand. ‘Are Sam and Elena still angry?’

Rose shrugged. ‘I don’t know. They haven’t mentioned it. They are just ignoring it. Pretend it hasn’t happened at all. As if not talking about it is going to make a difference.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Luisa said.

‘It’s so stupid. If you were a boy they wouldn’t care,’ Rose said angrily.

‘I’m glad I am not a boy, though,’ Luisa said, pulling a face.

‘Me too, but you would be a nice boy,’ Rose said softly.

Luisa smiled at that. ‘My dad said that you could come over to our place, if you want. He doesn’t care that we love each other.’

Rose bit her lip. ‘I can’t. Elena made it very clear I can’t see you anymore. She thinks you are a bad influence. She blames all this on you. That if I stop seeing you, I can be normal.’

‘Oh,’ Luisa said, she had expected this, but hearing it from Rose was something else. ‘Do you… Do you want to stop seeing me?’

‘No!’ Rose said, shaking her head furiously. ‘No, I do not want that! Ever!’

‘But it is making things so difficult for you…’ Luisa said, fidgeting with her hands, not meeting Rose’s blue eyes.

‘I don’t care,’ Rose said, more fired up than Luisa had ever seen her. ‘I want to be with you. And I am not going to let Elena take that from me. It’s not wrong. And I don’t care what she says. You are not bad for me.’

Luisa’s smile brightened, maybe she had confused this Rose with the Rose she met all those years ago. This Rose was going to keep fighting. And if Rose wasn’t going to give up, she _definitely_ wasn’t going to give up. ‘So we just need to find a way to do this, then.’

Rose nodded. ‘The Rafael note-passing system works okay.’

‘It’s very slow. I can only send you one note a week. So it isn’t very effective…’ Luisa mused.

‘I know…’ Rose said, the both of them lapsing into silence as they tried to come up with a way to communicate.

 ‘We could meet up after school…’ Luisa suggested.

Rose shook her head. ‘Elena knows my schedule and she is always home, so she will know when I am late. Also your school is nowhere near mine.’

Luisa nodded, she had sort of realized that before she said it. They lived too far away from each other for that too work. And they were both too young to have a car so she couldn’t just drive over.

‘I wish I could just call you…’ Luisa sighed, squeezing Rose’s hand again.

Suddenly Rose’s eyes lighted up. ‘You might be able too. In my dad’s office, he’s had a second line installed. I could try and call you from that! Elena never goes in there. We could talk that way.’

Luisa nodded slowly, thinking it over. ‘Yeah, that works. We can do that!’ she said, suddenly getting enthusiastic.

‘Do you have a pen?’ Rose asked, searching around her backpack.

‘Shouldn’t you have one? You’re the artist,’ Luisa teased gently, looking around in her own bag and coming up with a black pen.

‘Shut up,’ Rose said, smacking Luisa in the arm. Pulling up the sleeve of her jacket.

‘What are you doing?’ Luisa asked still holding out the pen.

‘Asking you for your number. I don’t have it memorized and I would rather not ask my father for it.’

‘Right,’ Luisa laughed, carefully writing her extension number on Rose’s arm, not wanting to hurt Rose. ‘So what time should I expect your call?’

‘After 4, because that’s when I get home from school. But before six because that’s when my dad comes home from work.’

‘So how about 4:30 PM? Tomorrow?’

‘That will work,’ Rose nodded, looking at her watch, her eyes going wide.

‘What time is it?’ Luisa asked. She was not really a watch kind of person but it felt like a lot of time had passed since they sat down.

‘I should go,’ Rose said, already jumping to her feet.

Luisa nodded. Understanding that Rose had to go but not happy about it all.

‘This sucks. I miss not seeing you. I mean, we didn’t see each other a lot before, but now I don’t get to see you at all,’ Luisa pouted.

‘I know. This sucks.’

‘It really sucks,’ Luisa sighed, repeating the word made her feel a little better. Just a little.

‘But I am glad we are not giving up on this.’

‘I could never give up on you. I love you,’ Luisa smiled, feeling a little lighter than before. Rose wasn’t giving up on them either. And however bleak things were, they could get through them. Together.

‘I love you, too,’ Rose smiled, looking a little less morose than before. ‘Don’t forget. Tomorrow. 4:30PM.’

‘I won’t forget,’ Luisa smiled, quickly kissing Rose. ‘I’ll be waiting by the phone.’

‘I’ll miss you,’ Rose said over her shoulder as she jogged towards the gate.

‘I’ll miss you, too,’ Luisa called after her. She hated that it had to be like this, but it was better than nothing.

* * *

Luisa got nervous as she watched the hands off the clock move steadily towards five, never before had Rose been this late in calling her. And Luisa was worried that something might have happened, that they had been discovered, _again,_ and that they were once again completely separated from each other.

She couldn’t just call Rose either, she had the number, but it was very likely that the ringing would be heard by someone that was not Rose, and that they would be found out that way. So it was better not to risk it.

Just as she was about to give up, the phone rang.

Luisa sprang into action and picked up before the first ring had even fully ended. It wasn’t like she couldn’t be overheard. Her father knew she and Rose were still talking and supported it, but she was just a little worried why Rose was so late in calling her.

‘Sorry I’m late,’ Rose panted into the receiver. ‘Elena, talking, sorry.’

‘Does she know?’ Luisa asked, nervously twisting the phone card around her fingers.

‘No, no,’ Rose said, finally getting her breathing under control. ‘I would probably not be here if she did. She was just talking to me about school. Nothing interesting. Just annoying.’

‘Good,’ Luisa sighed in relief. ‘I miss you.’

‘I miss you, too.’

The pause in between them stretched into a momentary silence. They hadn’t seen each other for nearly a month now. They called as often as they could, but they hadn’t yet had the opportunity to actually meet up.

It was getting to the both of them, but there was nothing they could do about it. Elena and Sam were still vehemently against their relationship. Which they didn’t know was still going on behind their backs. But didn’t stop them from doing everything they could to keep them apart.

Luisa’s father had tried to reason with Elena, but it hadn’t worked out favorably. So the girls still hadn’t been allowed to see each other. And outside of school, they had very little opportunity too.

Elena was keeping an eye on Rose. And was very suspicious about every minute Rose was late. Luckily, she hadn’t yet figured out they were communicating by phone. So at least they could still talk.

But it was so different from talking in person. From being able to hug and kiss Rose whenever she wanted. And honestly, it was getting harder for the both of them to remain positive that things would change after all this time. That they could be a real couple, a couple that was allowed to see each other and be together.

‘So, is everything okay with you?’ Luisa asked, twisting the phone cord between her fingers.

‘Yeah, I miss you. But school is okay.’

‘How did your art assignment go?’ Luisa asked, the whole conversation felt awkward. This was not what they wanted to talk about, and definitely not how. She just wanted to be with Rose. _Really_ be with Rose.

‘Good. I wish I could show you. I really like it. My teacher said I am improving.’

‘I don’t know what there is to improve, your art is already amazing,’ Luisa said, meaning it 100%. ‘And I wish I could see it, too. I wish I could see _you_.’

‘Me too,’ Rose sighed. ‘I hate this. I just want be with you.’

‘I know, it still sucks.’ Over time, saying it had lost is cathartic quality. The situation still sucked and absolutely nothing had changed. It had really only gotten worse.

‘Maybe we should break up,’ Rose said quietly.

‘What?! No! Do you want to?’ Luisa asked, tears already starting to burn in her eyes. She was not ready to give up on Rose yet.

‘No, I don’t want to break up with you. But this is not a relationship, Luisa. You should have a real girlfriend. Someone you can kiss and go out with. I don’t want to hold you back.’

‘You are my real girlfriend!’ Luisa yelled. ‘I don’t want anyone else! I just want you.’ She really was crying now. This wasn’t fair. None of it was fair. And it _fucking_ sucked.

‘We barely see each other,’ Rose said, entirely too reasonable. ‘I know it is making you upset. I can hear it when we talk.’

‘Of course I am upset! But not with you, I am upset with Elena! I just want to be with you. To see movies and read books. To go out for ice cream and hug you. And I can’t! And that upsets me.’

Rose was silent on the other end of the line. ‘It upsets me too. But just think about it, it is probably better if we do break up.’

‘No! It is not better! No!’ Luisa yelled angrily through her tears. She hated that she was an angry crier.

‘What do you suggest we do?’ Rose said, and Luisa could tell she was crying too.

‘I don’t know. But I am not giving up. I love you, and my father said you don’t give up on love. I am _not_ giving up,’ Luisa said firmly. ‘We will just have to sneak around. Which we already know how to do. We just need an excuse to get you away from Elena.’

‘That is not as easy as it sounds, Lu,’ Rose said. ‘She is always watching me. Trying to make me forget about you.’

‘And it is obviously working,’ Luisa said before she could think about it, regretting it instantly. None of this was Rose’s fault.

‘No! No it’s not!’ Rose said.

‘You want to break up,’ Luisa said, the words painfully heavy leaving her mouth.

‘No! I don’t want that. But I don’t want to sneak around either! It is making me miserable! I don’t know how much longer I can do this. It is just too difficult!’ Rose sobbed.

Luisa felt her heart break in her chest, Rose was crying and she could not reach out and comfort her.

‘I know it is difficult. I know,’ Luisa said quietly. ‘But it is worth it. We will find a way, Rose. We will find a way to be together. Just, don’t give up, okay?’

Rose sniffed. ‘Yeah, okay. I don’t want to give up. I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be sorry. It’s okay. I know how you feel. But I am not giving up.’

‘This really sucks,’ Rose said, uttering their by now standard phrase. Luisa smiled as she returned the sentiment.

‘I will think of something. I _will_ see you soon,’ Luisa added, wiping away her tears. She had to believe it to be true. She had too, because she was not going to break up with Rose. Ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it, (strange word to use in this context) I feel so bad for them. Why am I doing this? They don't deserve any of this. It _sucks_. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, leave your thoughts in a comment, I love hearing from you guys!


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuse for why I am late, so I am just sorry. Please enjoy this chapter!

Luisa was reading on her bed when Rafael stormed into her room with his usual enthusiasm.

‘Lu! Rose on the phone for you,’ he smiled.

Luisa shot up, looking at the clock to see if she had missed her usually scheduled appointment with Rose. But it was still a half hour before the discussed time. Elena had been getting suspicious lately, so they had been changing it up a little. But Luisa was certain she had not forgotten at what time Rose would call today. So that could only mean that something had happened that warranted the early call.

‘Are you two fighting?’ Rafael asked as he walked back into the living room with Luisa. ‘I never see you two together anymore.’

Rafael was blissfully unaware of the restrictions Elena had put on their relationship. And Luisa had thought it best not to tell him. Even if Elena was a horrible human being, she was still Rafael’s mother.

‘No, no we’re not. We’re just, _busy_ ,’ Luisa said, lacking a better word. It was true; they were both pretty busy. But that still had plenty of time to go see each other. If that had been at all possible. Elena had been keeping a very close eye on Rose so they hadn’t seen each other in over two weeks. And she was missing Rose and her warm smiles and cute freckles a lot because of that.

‘Oh, okay,’ Rafael shrugged, going back to his videogame as Luisa picked up the receiver.

‘Rose?’ she asked.

‘Hey!’ Rose said, not sounding upset.

‘Is something wrong? Why are you calling?’ Luisa asked, still a little concerned.  

‘No nothing is wrong,’ Rose said, and Luisa could hear the smile in her voice. It had been a while since she had heard Rose sound so happy. They were both kind of sad that they no longer got to see each other. And Rose was of course still upset about the fact that her father and Elena were not okay with her being gay. Which the two of talked about a lot, but Luisa knew there was nothing she could say to Rose that would make her feel better about not being accepted by the people closest to her.

‘So, why are you calling 30 minutes early? Not that I am complaining!’ Luisa added. ‘Because I missed you. A lot.’

‘I missed you, too,’ Rose said, but Luisa could still hear the smile in her voice. Which was different from her usual sad admittance of that fact. ‘But I have some good news!’

‘Really?’ Luisa asked, feeling her own mood lighten as her concern faded away completely. ‘What is it?’

‘My dad has to go on a business trip Friday, and Elena is going with him. So after school I am going to be staying at a friend’s house. So, I thought I could come see you instead.’

Luisa felt a smile break across her face. For the first time in weeks there was a chance she could actually see Rose.

‘So what are you going to tell your friend?’ Luisa asked. ‘Won’t she be upset that you ditched her?’

‘I am telling her that I am involved in a love story tragic enough to rival Romeo and Juliet’s.’

Luisa laughed, they had both started reading Romeo and Juliet in school last week, and just like those star-crossed lovers, they were being kept apart by their families. Luisa just hoped they would have a less tragic ending.

‘It is a terrible love story,’ Luisa laughed.

‘I know. But somehow a lot of people seem to think it is terribly romantic. So it will work. I am certain of it.’

‘Good, I can’t wait to see you!’

‘Me neither. It can’t be Friday soon enough.’

‘So apart from the incredible news, did anything else interesting happen at school today?’ Luisa asked, flopping down on the couch, much to Rafael’s annoyance as the move caused her to jostle him, which resulted in him dying in his video game.

She and Rose talked for another half an hour, just discussing the things they normally talked about. Like school, and books, and friends.

When Luisa finally hung up, after a chorus of ‘I love you’s and ‘I will see you soon’s, she actually felt happy for the first time in a while after a talk with Rose.

She loved talking with Rose, even now it made her day that much better to just talk with Rose for a little while. But those talks were always clouded by sadness. Because they couldn’t see each other whenever they wanted. They couldn’t hold hands or kiss. And they both knew that even their daily phone calls would be in the balance if Sam or Elena ever found out about them.

But now, there was a _chance_ , and in just a short couple of days they would be able to see each other again. And they _would_ be able to kiss and hold hands. And Luisa didn’t care how long she would have to wait for them to meet up afterwards, the thoughts of the future not going to ruin the fact that she was finally going to see Rose again.

She was so happy she practically skipped back to her room. Ideas for how to spent that Friday afternoon already forming in her head.

* * *

Luisa could barely concentrate in class that Friday. She was way too excited about seeing Rose again that afternoon. So much even that her friends asked what she was so happy about. They still didn’t know about the fact that Rose was her girlfriend, so Luisa smoothly lied that she was just excited about the weekend. Which she was, but that never stopped her from paying attention in class.

But now she had been doodling in the margins of her notes all day. And they weren’t nearly as good as what Rose called “doodles”. But writing Rose’s name over and over again had a therapeutic effect on her and caused the day to fly by.

Once she got home, she sprinted through the hotel lobby, only halting when Michel shot her a dirty look.

Luisa apologized, but as soon as she was out of the day manager’s view, she took off at full sprint towards the elevators, weaving between guests, her excitement uncurbed. She wanted to change out of her uniform before Rose arrived, which would hopefully be soon.

She changed out of her school uniform at lighting speed, throwing the clothes every which way as she put on the dress she had selected the day before. Picked especially for her date with Rose.

As she looked in the mirror, she smoothed the creases out of the blue, dotted fabric of her dress. She had been favoring dresses more than jeans lately. They were much nicer and cooler in the warm Florida climate, and Rose said she looked nice in them, so there was really no reason not to wear them anymore.

‘I’ll be at the beach!’ Luisa yelled at the babysitter she knew was somewhere in the apartment, probably entertaining Rafael and a bunch of his friends.

She didn’t wait for a reply and stormed out the door, impatiently drumming her fingers on her thigh as she waited for the elevator, wondering if they were always this slow, or if that was just because she was in a hurry now.

As she exited the elevator in the lobby, she looked around for a familiar head of red curls. But she saw nothing. But that didn’t mean that Rose hadn’t seen her.

‘Luisa!’ Rose’s voice sounded from her left, making Luisa turn.

‘Rose!’ Luisa shouted happily, running towards the redhead and wrapping her in a tight hug.

‘I missed you,’ Luisa murmured against the fabric of Rose’s dress.

‘I missed you, too,’ Rose whispered.

The clung to each other for what felt like an eternity. Not wanting to let go.

Eventually they broke apart, the both of them smiling widely. Happy to be reunited again.

Luisa grinned as she pushed up on her toes. Rose seemingly just kept growing and was now really towering above her.

‘I love you,’ she said as she softly pressed her lips against Rose’s. Completely forgetting about the fact that she was in the hotel lobby and should probably be more careful. But she didn’t care about that today. This was the first time in over two weeks she saw Rose, and she didn’t care what anyone else thought. She’d missed her girlfriend. A lot.

‘I love you, too,’ Rose said, a beaming smile lifting the corners of her lips as she pulled away from the kiss.

‘Good,’ Luisa smiled. ‘I like your hair,’ she said, winding one strand of Rose’s read hair around her finger. Rose had straightened the normally wild curls and her hair looked much longer now.

‘Thank you,’ Rose said, blushing prettily. ‘I like your dress.’

‘It reminded me of you,’ Luisa shrugged, stroking one of the red roses on her dress softly.

‘It’s really nice,’ Rose smiled.

‘Let’s go outside,’ Luisa suggested, taking Rose’s hand and dragging her through the open double doors out onto the terrace, passing the pool and kicking off her shoes before stepping onto the hot sand of the beach.

‘It’s beautiful,’ Rose said as she looked at the waves crashing onto the golden sand.

‘Almost as beautiful as you,’ Luisa smiled, springing up on her toes to peck Rose on the cheek. Oh, how she’d missed doing that. To just be able to spontaneously kiss or touch Rose.

‘That’s so sappy, Lu,’ Rose said, blushing almost as red as her hair.

‘I mean it; you are much prettier than the ocean.’

‘You are too,’ Rose said softly, squeezing Luisa’s hand.

Luisa smiled, pulling Rose a couple of feet into the water.

‘Luisa!’ Rose yelped, the water barely reaching her knees.

‘Yes?’ Luisa said innocently, wading through the water, pulling Rose with her.

‘That was not very nice of you,’ Rose pouted, but Luisa could tell she wasn’t really upset with her by the sparkle in her eyes. She only realized too late that the pout had just been to cover up the mischief shining in Rose’s eyes, because Rose had already kicked a torrent of water her way.

‘Rose!’ Luisa yelled, running towards the much safer and dryer sand. ‘That was just mean! I thought you liked this dress!’

‘I do,’ Rose grinned. ‘But I thought some revenge was in order,’ she said as she chased Luisa back into the water, splashing her some more.

This time Luisa was prepared and managed to splash Rose in return.

It was so easy to forget that Elena was doing everything to keep them apart when they were running around on the beach like this. It was easy to forget that so many people thought they shouldn’t be girlfriends, that they shouldn’t kiss or hold hands. But that was the furthest thing from Luisa’s mind as she chased Rose back onto dry land, stopping a few feet from a panting Rose as she caught her own breath.

‘So, had enough?’ Luisa grinned.

‘What, me? You are much wetter than I am!’ Rose said triumphantly.

She was right of course; the bottom half of Luisa’s dress was almost completely drenched while Rose was only spotting the occasional darkened spot on her own clothes.

‘This is worse than when Rafael was obsessed with his water gun,’ Luisa groaned.

‘No, that was way worse,’ Rose smiled, holding out her hand to Luisa in a pacifying gesture. ‘Even?’

‘Yeah, we’re even,’ Luisa nodded, intertwining her hand with Rose’s. ‘So how about we get some ice cream?’

Rose nodded. ‘Sounds like a great idea.’

As they walked down the beach, holding hands and smiling widely, they talked about everything they hadn’t yet talked about on the phone. Which wasn’t a lot, so they soon lapsed into silence. But it far from uncomfortable. It was nice to just be together, to hold hands, to laugh about the daring seagulls begging for scrap and to pick up an especially beautiful seashell and present it to the other.

It was better to be near each other in silence than it was to talk about noting over the phone. So Luisa was just enjoying Rose’s company, enjoying the fact that she could look to the side and count the freckles on Rose’s cheeks, that she could reach out and tuck a strand of already curling hair behind Rose’s ear.

Luisa spoke up again when they were both licking their ice-cream, their hands still intertwined, swinging softly between them as they walked down the boardwalk.

‘Do you wanna ride the Ferris wheel with me?’ Luisa asked.

‘What? Why?’ Rose laughed.

‘Because it will be fun, and romantic. And we will be able to kiss when the wheel stops all the way at the top.’

‘It _is_ kind of romantic,’ Rose mused. ‘Okay, I’ll ride the Ferris wheel with you.’

‘Great! Thank you,’ Luisa said, pecking Rose on the cheek. ‘Let’s go then!’ she said, enthusiastically pulling Rose along by the hand.

* * *

‘The ocean really is beautiful,’ Rose said as the Ferris wheel steadily climbed higher.

‘Yeah, it is,’ Luisa said as she watched the setting sun color the sky and the waves orange. The water sparkling beautifully.

Luisa squeezed Rose’s hand, scooting a little closer to her so their seat swung back and forth a little.

‘Don’t do that,’ Rose said, clinging to Luisa a little tighter.

‘Sorry, just wanted to be closer to you,’ Luisa said, resting her head on Rose’s shoulder. Watching the sun sink further below the waves as they themselves rose higher and higher, eventually halting at the top.

The sunset was making Rose’s hair an even more vibrant shade of red, and when Luisa turned her head she could see the fairy lights surrounding the Ferris wheel reflecting in Rose’s blue eyes.

She tucked a lock of hair behind Rose’s ear, her hand lingering on Rose’s cheek as she leaned in, Rose doing the same until their lips met.

The kiss started out slowly, but it soon deepened more than it ever had before.

Luisa smiled into the kiss. Rose tasted of chocolate and vanilla and she couldn’t get enough of it, so even when the Ferris wheel started slowly moving down again, she didn’t break the kiss.

Eventually, the need for air become too great to ignore and the two of them broke apart. Closer to the ground than to the top where the kiss had started.

‘That was,’ Rose stared, her eyes big and her smile soft.

‘Nice. Really nice,’ Luisa smiled back.

‘Yeah, really nice,’ Rose grinned, seemingly a little stunned, which Luisa could understand; that was how she felt too.

They couldn’t stop grinning, even when they were back on solid ground. They kept glancing over at each other and blushing slightly.

‘Let’s go back to the Marbella,’ Luisa said softly. ‘It’s getting late.’

‘Okay,’ Rose nodded. ‘I had a really nice time today.’

‘Me too,’ Luisa smiled. ‘And I sort of want to kiss you like that again.’

‘You can,’ Rose grinned. ‘Just not here okay?’ she said, looking at all the people around them.

Luisa nodded, understanding Rose’s need to be careful. So she grabbed Rose’s hand and pulled her back towards the hotel. Because she couldn’t wait to kiss Rose again. To really, _really_ kiss her.

* * *

‘Ah! There you are! Your father has been looking for you two,’ Michel said as they walked into the hotel lobby, the two of them still smiling softly and holding hands.

‘What? Why?’ Luisa asked, it wasn’t that late and she had told the babysitter where she was. Also how had her father known that Rose was here, she hadn’t told him yet.

‘Do I look like I know?’ Michel said. ‘He just told me to tell you to go upstairs.’

Luisa had a bad feeling about all of this as she rode the elevator up to her floor, Rose feeling the same dread hanging above them; they both feared that Elena had somehow discovered their secret relationship.

But when Luisa quietly unlocked the door to their room, she found her father comforting a crying Rafael.

‘Dad? What’s wrong?’ Luisa asked, closing the door behind her. The feeling of alarm not fading as she saw her father’s gaze shift from her to Rose.

‘I got a call, from Elena,’ Emilio said, his tone suspiciously even. ‘Asking if Rose was with you. She wasn’t where she said she would be.’

Luisa felt the world slow. So it was true, Elena _had_ found out about them.

‘Why was she calling?’ Rose asked, her voice hoarse.

‘I am so sorry, Rose,’ Emilio said, getting up to stand in front of the two girls. ‘Your father, he’s had a heart attack. He was taken to the hospital…’

‘Is he okay?’ Rose asked immediately, her grip on Luisa’s hand getting stronger.

‘I am so sorry,’ Emilio said softly, putting his hand on Rose’s shoulder.

He didn’t need to say the actual words. His expression said it all; Rose’s father was not okay.

‘Is Sam dead?’ Luisa asked, feeling tears burn behind her own eyes as Rose burst out in uncontrollable sobs. Already knowing the answer to that question, but she needed to be sure.

‘Yes, I am so very sorry,’ Emilio said.

But after the affirmation Luisa didn’t hear anything he said, she was just left with a terrible sense of déjà vu and the thought that this was much, much worse than Elena finding out about them.

She turned around and wrapped Rose in a tight hug. Softly whispering that everything would be okay, but she knew that it wouldn’t be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so, so sorry. Just, so sorry. But there are two chapters left on this fic, and I promise I will fix it. One way or another.
> 
> Comments (and loud screaming about how cruel I am) can be left here. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, and hopefully see you soon!


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter. I am afraid it is not much happier than the last one. Sorry.

Luisa held Rose as she cried. She had no idea what to do. She was strongly reminded of when Rose’s mother had died only two years ago. Of how helpless she’d felt then. And this was much worse. Because now Rose didn’t even have her father to comfort her. She was all alone. Well, not all alone, she had Luisa. But that wasn’t the same. So all Luisa could do was just hold Rose and stroke her back as she cried.

Rafael was softly crying on the other end of the couch. Sam might not be his dad, but he spent a lot of time with him so of course he was upset too. Luisa wasn’t crying for Sam as much as she was crying for Rose.

‘I wanna go home,’ Rose whispered, her shoulders still shaking.

‘Okay. Okay,’ Luisa soothed, drying her own tears. ‘I’ll go ask my dad.’

She carefully extracted herself from Rose’s embrace, kissing her softly on the cheek before going to find her dad, who was having some kind of argument over the phone. Luisa waited as her father slammed her the phone down.

‘Was that Elena?’ Luisa asked quietly.

Her father nodded, running a hand over his head.

‘Rose wants to go home,’ she said, stepping into his father’s embrace.

He hugged her tightly, rubbing her back before letting go.

‘Alright, let’s go then,’ Emilio said, patting Luisa’s shoulder.

‘It’s so unfair, dad,’ Luisa said, tears welling up in her eyes.

‘I know, honey. I know.’

‘Now Rose has nobody!’ Luisa said, getting angry at the injustice of all of this. ‘Her mother is dead, her father is dead. Where is she going to go?’

‘Back to Elena,’ her father said. ‘She’s Rose’s stepmother.’

‘But Elena hates Rose, and Rose hates Elena! We can’t let her go back there.’

‘There’s nothing we can do about that, Luisa,’ Emilio said, trying to calm his daughter.

‘Elena is Rose’s guardian.’

‘Isn’t there anyone else?’ Luisa asked, angrily brushing her tears away. She couldn’t let Rose get back to Elena. She couldn’t. Elena didn’t care about Rose. Didn’t care about what made Rose happy. She just thought Rose was wrong and unnatural and she was not going to let Rose get back to her.

‘I don’t know,’ Emilio said truthfully. ‘Possibly. But it doesn’t matter. Elena adopted Rose when she married her father. She’s Rose’s closest relative.’

‘That’s just stupid,’ Luisa bit out. ‘And unfair.’

‘I know, sweetheart. I know. But you can still be there for her. Like you are now,’ he said, squeezing Luisa’s shoulder.

That gave Luisa hope for a second but it faded as soon as it had appeared. ‘No, she won’t. She hates me. She doesn’t want me and Rose together. She has been keeping us apart. She won’t let me see her, dad!’ Luisa said, starting to panic. ‘We can’t let her go back!’

‘Luisa, there is nothing we can do. Elena is Rose’s mother. And Rose wants to go home. She should be home.’

Luisa ground her teeth. It was decidedly unfair, all of it was. But her father was right, there was nothing she could do and Rose _did_ want to go home.

Defeated, Luisa walked back into the living room. She felt helpless, useless. There was nothing she could do for Rose. She couldn’t bring her dad back, which was the only thing that would solve any of this.

Of course, they still wouldn’t have been allowed to see each other. But Luisa would rather have that than have Rose crying on her couch.

She smiled a little as she saw that Rafael was doing his best to comfort Rose, patting her arm lightly and whispering to her.

‘Let’s go get you home,’ Luisa said softly, sitting down next to Rose.

Rose nodded, wrapping her arms around Luisa’s neck, crying into her shoulder.

‘I’m sorry,’ Luisa said, feeling tears start to make their way down her own cheeks again. Two years ago so she had at least sort of understood how Rose felt. But now? Her father was still alive. She had no idea what it felt like to have no parents at all. And what she had said to Rose then would hardly offer any comfort now.

Rose didn’t respond, and Luisa hadn’t expected her to.

‘Let’s just go home, okay?’ Luisa said, wiping at the tears on Rose’s cheek before pulling the other girl to her feet.

Rose nodded, taking Luisa’s hand and squeezing it tightly.

Emilio was waiting for them by the door, smiling sadly at Luisa as she gently guided pulled Rose along with her.

The car ride was spent in silence. The only sounds heard Rose’s quiet sniffle and Luisa’s soft, comforting whispers.

‘I love you,’ Luisa whispered, squeezing Rose’s hand as they stopped in front of Rose’s house. She had no idea what was about to happen, but she just wanted Rose to know that whatever it was, that she loved her. And would always be there for her.

‘I love you, too,’ Rose said softly, following Luisa out of the car. Never letting go of her hand.

They weren’t even halfway down the path when the front door burst open and Elena ran out.

Luisa tensed immediately. She hadn’t seen Elena ever since she had caught her and Rose kissing. And it wasn’t exactly a pleasant memory.

‘Rose!’ Elena yelled. But wasn’t angry like Luisa had expected. It sounded more, upset, than anything else.

But Luisa still recoiled when Elena wrapped Rose in a hug.

‘I am so sorry, darling,’ Elena said, hugging Rose tightly.

‘What happened?’ Rose cried, letting go of Luisa’s hand to cling to Elena instead.

So Luisa was about to ask the same question about _that_ turn of events, but she decided it was better not to question it and believe Elena was in such shock that she had no idea what she was doing. It was the most likely scenario for this display of humanity.

‘I don’t know,’ Elena said, stroking Rose’s hair. ‘One minute he was fine and the next he was just, gone. I am so sorry,’ Elena said.

Rose nodded, slowly pulling away from the hug.

‘Let’s go inside,’ Elena said, patting Rose’s back.

Rose nodded again, following Elena, seemingly remembering Luisa was still there a couple of steps in. She broke away from Elena and turned back to Luisa.

Luisa offered Rose a brave smile, opening her arms and wrapping her in a hug.

‘I’ll call, okay?’ she whispered as she held Rose tightly.

Rose nodded. ‘I’d like that.’

Luisa didn’t care what Elena might say about it, she was not going to let Rose go through this alone. She was her girlfriend; she was going to be there for her.

‘I love you,’ Luisa said, pressing a soft kiss to Rose’s lips. It wasn’t the same like the kiss they had shared at the top of the Ferris wheel earlier that day, which seemed so long ago now, but she thought Rose might need this more. Besides, Elena was still watching and she would rather not make things worse.

‘I love you, too,’ Rose said. ‘Thank you for everything.’

‘I’ll call you,’ Luisa promised, slowly letting Rose’s hand fall from her own as Rose stepped away, towards Elena.

Rose nodded, putting on a brave smile.

Luisa waited until the front door fell shut behind before turning around and getting back in the car.

>>>>>>>>>> 

Luisa get more anxious with every ring of the phone, worrying Rose might not pick up. That after her display of leniency yesterday afternoon, Elena was back to keeping them apart.

She felt a weight lift off her shoulders as the other line was picked up and she could hear Rose’s soft, but definitely recognizable, ‘hey’ from the other end.

‘Hey,’ Luisa said, a smile curving her lips. But the circumstances hadn’t changed, so her smile faded as soon as she remembered why she was calling. ‘How are you holding up?’

‘I don’t know. It just still doesn’t feel real. It feels even less real than when my mother died,’ Rose said, chocking up slightly. ‘I’m all alone now.’

‘You still have me,’ Luisa said, knowing it was not the same but not knowing what else to say.

‘I do,’ Rose said. ‘I love you.’

‘I love you, too. I wish there was something else I could do,’ Luisa said, getting frustrated again.

‘You’re doing enough by just being there for me. And it is not like you can change anything.’

‘I know. I just wish there was _something_ I could do. I don’t want you to be all alone.’

‘Neither do I.’

‘How’s Derek doing?’ Luisa asked.

‘He doesn’t understand. He is so confused about why dad isn’t coming home. That actually makes me the saddest. He is just waiting for him to come home, and he never is,’ Rose said, her voice cracking.

Luisa listened to Rose cry, once again wishing she could reach through the phone and hold Rose. To comfort her. But she couldn’t.

Rose sniffed, taking a shaky breath. ‘I should go; Elena needs the phone to make some arrangements.’

‘Call me when you need anything. Or just to talk. It doesn’t matter. Or I could come over?’ she offered.

‘No, that’s okay. I just need some time to process I guess. And I will call you. I love you.’

‘I love you, too,’ Luisa said. ‘So very much,’ she added before hanging up.

Luisa spent the rest of that Saturday very close to the phone, always keeping an eye on it in case Rose called. And every time it rang she shot up from her place on the couch and answered the phone in record time. It was never Rose.

Sighing, Luisa stared at the phone, maybe Elena was still making calls. Or maybe she had forbidden Rose from calling her. Or maybe Rose just didn’t want to talk to her. She knew she shouldn’t take that personally, Rose was going through a lot, and so far her own support had been absolutely useless. But she couldn’t help but wonder if everything was okay. If there wasn’t something she could do to help.

>>>>>>>> 

The next day she still hadn’t heard from Rose, so she decided to call her herself. She needed to know if Rose was okay. How she was holding up through all of this.

‘Hello?’

‘Elena, hi. Is Rose there?’ Luisa asked, already feeling her heart sinking.

‘She is still in bed. She’s not feeling well.’

‘Oh, okay,’ Luisa said, feeling like a terrible girlfriend for not calling earlier. It was 11am and normally Rose would have been awake hours ago. She should have realized that Rose was obviously not okay. Her father had just died. Of course she wouldn’t be. ‘Could you ask her to call me back. I just want to know how she is doing.’

‘I don’t think that is wise,’ Elena said, her tone suddenly icy. ‘I still won’t let you corrupt her any further. She is in a very fragile state right now. She doesn’t need you to make it worse.’

Luisa felt like her throat was being squeezed shut. This was what she had been afraid of. Of Elena keeping them apart.

‘I just want to help! She’s my girlfriend! I love her!’ Luisa said, feeling tears start to well up in her eyes.

‘You know nothing about love,’ Elena said coldly. ‘Don’t call again. It will be better for Rose if you don’t. She can still be normal.’

Luisa wanted to say something, but Elena had already hung up.

‘I hate you,’ Luisa hissed at the phone on the wall before breaking down in sobs. Rose needed her. And she needed her. She couldn’t do this no contact thing again. It had nearly broken them apart before. And if Elena was talking to Rose like she was talking to her, she knew Rose could use someone to talk to.

>>>> 

Luisa spent the whole day pacing around the room, trying to think of _something_ she could do. But there was nothing. She couldn’t call. She had tried, but Elena had picked up each and every time and hung up as soon as she saw it was Luisa calling. She couldn’t go over and check on Rose in person either. Rose lived on the other side of the city and even if she could magically get there, Elena was never going to let her in. She was all out of ideas and felt even more useless than she had before.

She heard the phone ring, normally she would run right over. But she knew now that Rose wouldn’t call. Elena wouldn’t allow her to.

‘Lu,’ Rafael said, opening the door to her bedroom. ‘It’s Rose. I think. She’s crying really hard,’ Rafael said, his eyes wide as he motioned to phone.

Luisa shot up, her heartrate skyrocketing before she even pressed the phone to her ear.

‘Rose! It’s me! What’s wrong?’ she asked.

‘Elena, she’s- she’s,’ Rose hiccupped, her sobs interrupting her.

‘What is she doing?’ Luisa said, immediately getting angry.

‘She’s sending me away,’ Rose cried.

‘What?’ Luisa asked, fear bubbling up underneath her skin. ‘Away? To where?’

‘A school,’ Rose said, still crying. ‘In Switzerland.’

Luisa’s mouth fell open. She had no idea what to say. What to do. How to react.

‘She- she can’t do that,’ she said, tears starting to burn in her eyes.

‘I don’t want to go!’ Rose cried. ‘I can’t go! I would never see you again. I-’

‘No, you can’t go. No!’ Luisa said.

‘I don’t know what to do, Luisa,’ Rose cried. ‘I- I,’ Rose said, starting to wheeze slightly.

‘It’s okay. She is not taking you away from me. She can’t,’ Luisa said firmly. Trying to convince herself of that fact.

‘Luisa,’ Rose cried. ‘Elena’s coming. I sneaked away to call you. I have to go, I’m sorry.’

‘No! Don’t go! I love you…’ Luisa said, put it was already too late; Rose had already hung up.

Suddenly Luisa knew what to do. She dropped the phone and flew down the ten flights of stairs, barging into her father’s office without knocking.

‘Dad!’ she cried, not caring that her father was in the middle of a discussion with someone.

‘Luisa, you can’t-,’ Emilio started.

‘Elena is sending Rose away,’ Luisa said. ‘I have to go see her.’

Emilio looked at his distraught daughter, at the tears rolling down and her cheeks. He then apologized to the investor sitting across from him.

‘I’m sorry. I have to take care of this,’ he said, taking Luisa’s hand.

Luisa explained everything that she knew to her father as he drove her to Rose’s house. But she didn’t know much. She was just worried.

As soon as the car stopped Luisa was standing outside, racing towards the front door. Yelling and pounding the wood with her fists.

‘Let me in!’ she yelled, more tears making their way down her cheeks. ‘Elena! I have to see her. Rose!’ she yelled. ‘ROSE!’

At first nothing happened, but then Elena appeared, her face contorted into an angry mask.

‘Go home, Luisa. She’s…’

But Luisa didn’t hear her, diving underneath Elena’s outstretched arm and running through the hallway, up the stairs, calling Rose’s name.

There was no response, and as soon as she entered Rose’s bedroom she knew why.

She looked around in stunned silence: the room was empty. All Rose’s personal touches all gone. It was just another empty room in the house. For a second Luisa wondered if she had gotten the wrong one in her hurry to escape from Elena. But the walls were the same mint green color. This was Rose’s room. It was just that Rose was no longer in it.

She sank to her knees, tears freely flowing from her eyes. She was too late. Rose was already gone. And there was nothing she could do about it now. She was gone.

She heard someone come up the stairs but she didn’t care. Rose was gone, nothing mattered anymore. She had failed her. Her girlfriend was gone and she was never going to get her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just the epilogue now...
> 
> Comments are very much appreciated. Thank you for reading!


	15. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, the final chapter. I am sorry for the way I left things in the last chapter (I am not really, it was all part of the plan) so here you go, the epilogue with hopefully a happy ending!  
> Why don't you read and find out what the future has in store for them?
> 
> Enjoy!

_15 years later._

Luisa listlessly stirred her drink with the straw. It just didn’t taste the same without the alcohol in it. It was basically like drinking lemonade. She wouldn’t go as far as saying that she missed the taste of alcohol the most, but she did. It was strange to not drink a glass of wine with dinner, to not have a cold beer on a hot day, to not order a fruity cocktail in a bar. But it was better this way, she knew it was better this way. So she stuck to her icy lemonade and looked around the bar.

There were plenty of women around, but most had already paired up for the night. Bumping knees underneath the table while laughing or dragging the other to the dancefloor. But it was still early, so Luisa had plenty of time to find a nice girl to take home with her tonight.

In the meantime, she would just have to try and enjoy her drink and make small talk with the bartender.

She turned her head slightly as she heard a commotion by the door, smiling as she saw the obviously in love couple stumble in. Arms around each other’s waists and heads bowed close together.

Luisa couldn’t remember the last time she looked at someone like that. Or more accurately, had someone look at her like that. There were plenty of women in her life, but most of them were just regular booty calls. No real feelings except basic sexual attraction involved.

Her last real girlfriend had probably been over a year ago, and it hadn’t ended well. She had been nearing the end of the downward spiral that would land her in rehab later that year and that was not very conductive to relationships. It had been that way basically since she started college. And if she was being honest probably senior year of high school too. You couldn’t commit to a relationship if you were already committed to alcohol.

So that would make the last real relationship she’d had her very first one. Which was over half a lifetime ago. It was kind of pathetic. She tried to shake the thought of that disastrous relationship, but now the thought had surfaced, she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

It had been years since she had last really thought of Rose.

They had never regained contact after Elena sent Rose off to Switzerland. Luisa had tried to find her, but Rose had pretty much dropped off the face of the earth.

Luisa wondered if things might have been different if everything had happened now instead of 15 years ago. It was very hard to disappear in this age of social media. She _still_ hadn’t found out how to permanently delete her twitter.

Maybe in today’s society she and Rose would have been able to stay connected. With cellphones and the internet, it was a lot easier to hide relationships. It sucked that even now, in 2010 people like her still had to hide, still weren’t accept. Hell, she still couldn’t _marry_ in her home state. Not that she wanted to get married, it was just nice to have that option like all other humans on the planet.

She had looked for Rose for months after her sudden disappearance. She knew Elena knew where she was. But she also knew Elena was never going to tell her. Also she was 14 at the time so her options were very limited. But just because she couldn’t find Rose, didn’t mean she had so had forgotten about her.

Even after giving up her fruitless search for Rose, she had held out hope that Rose might find her. That one day they would be reunited. But that had never happened.

Maybe Rose had forgotten about her, or maybe she had just given up like Luisa had.

It had taken some time, but eventually Luisa got over Rose. She dated other girls but it had just never been the same. People were right when they said your first love never really left you. And she had really loved Rose.

She wondered where Rose was now. If she had returned to America, if she’d gone to college. If she’d continued drawing and gone to art school like she’d wanted. Or if she’d stayed in Switzerland and gotten some other career. If she was seeing someone, if she had gotten married or if she was miserable and single like Luisa.

All of it was possible, and it was the worst feeling not knowing where Rose had ended. To not know anything about the person she had once told everything. Hell, she didn’t even know if Rose was still alive. Something might have happened to her at any point during those 15 years, and it was very unlikely the news would have gotten back to Luisa.

After Elena had sent Rose of to Europe, her father had sued for sole custody of Rafael, and he had gotten it. Meaning Luisa had not seen Elena since that day 15 years ago. Even Rafael’s contact with his mother had waivered. He had pick Luisa’s side over his own mother’s. And for that Luisa would be eternally grateful.

But all of that was a long time ago and she guessed that was just what life had had in store for them. Nothing she could do about that now.

As she had sat at the bar reminiscing, the ice in her drink had melted and she pushed the drink away from her with a disgusted face as the tepid lemonade made its way down her throat. It was even more disgusting than warm beer. Which she could still stomach as it at least contained alcohol. Could in the past tense, her beach party drinking days were behind her. She was a respected doctor now, having left the partying to Rafael.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t still have fun.

She abandoned her drink, not intending to finish it anyway and made her way to the dance floor. It was time to get the evening started, and she couldn’t do that by sitting on a barstool the entire night, sipping lemonade and thinking about a girl she hadn’t seen in 15 years.

After dancing to a couple of songs with some very attractive women, whom she might go and talk to later that night, Luisa returned to the bar. She felt a little better now, less stuck in the past.

She waved over the bartender and was just about to order another virgin cocktail which would either taste like juice or lemonade, when the bartended presented her with a drink.

‘I haven’t ordered yet,’ Luisa laughed, accepting the glass.

The bartender smiled and shrugged. ‘It’s from that woman over there.’ She motioned to the other side of the bar.

Luisa was in the middle of looking up to see which woman had bought her a virgin cocktail, knowing Anna, the regular bartender, would never serve her something with alcohol in it, when Anna interrupted her.

‘She also told me to give you this,’ she said, placing a folded napkin next to her glass.

Luisa frowned, spinning the scrap of paper around. Noticing it was just a folded up napkin, it was folded to look like a flower. A rose to be exact.

Her eyes went wide and her head immediately shot up, searching for a familiar face in the crowd. Because there was only one person she knew who had made white paper roses.

Her heart stopped beating for a second as she met a pair of familiar blue eyes. After all these years, those eyes were as familiar to her as her own.

She had no idea how she was here. How after 15 years, she and Rose were once again back in each other’s orbit. Having found each other by chance just like she had always hoped.

Luisa picked up her glass and made her way over to Rose, not caring about the people she bumped into along the way. She was half feeling like this was a dream and she could wake up at any moment so the people she walked into wouldn’t really matter anyway.

She had no idea what to say as she stood in front of Rose.

It was definitely her. She had last seen Rose when she was just a prepubescent girl, and if Luisa had been glad with the job puberty did on her own body. Puberty had really taken Rose from an 8 to an 11.

She was stunning. Her wild curls tamed into soft waves, still the same vibrant red. The angles of her face had sharpened even more and she had grown even taller. She was also filling out her red dress quite nicely but Luisa didn’t spend more than a second focusing on that aspect of Rose’s appearance. Much more interested in staring at Rose’s face.

She had so many questions. The most prominent ones “How are you here?” and “How did you find me?” But she couldn’t form words and she just stared at Rose with her mouth hanging open.

Rose broke the silence. ‘Hey,’ she said, much more casually and relaxed than Luisa would have been able to. But it did snap Luisa out of her stupor.

‘Hey,’ she said back, slowly sitting herself down on the barstool next to Rose.

‘I’m pleasantly surprised to run into you here,’ Rose smiled.

Pleasantly surprised was definitely an understatement. Luisa herself would have gone with shocked disbelief.

‘Yeah, you can say that,’ Luisa said, finally picking her jaw off the floor.

‘You look well,’ Rose smiled, calmly taking a sip of her drink and that is when Luisa had enough.

‘How are you not freaking out right now? The last time I saw you we were 14 years old! And then you were just gone. For 15 years! Not one word. And now we are both here, in a bar. And you are not at all weirded out by this?’

‘A little. It is a pretty big coincidence.’

‘Pretty big? I would say cosmically impossible,’ Luisa sighed, taking a sip of her drink.

‘Not at all. This is one of the only lesbian bars within driving distance from Miami.’

‘Wait, are you back in Miami?’ Luisa asked.

‘I have been for a little while now,’ Rose said.

Luisa nodded. She wanted to ask why Rose hadn’t contacted her. Hadn’t called or dropped by if she was back in the city. But then that would be kind of ridiculous. They hadn’t seen each in 15 years. Rose was under no obligation to call her. They were both adults, they had last seen each other as children. They didn’t really know each other. And yet, Luisa couldn’t help but be hurt by it.

She occasionally googled Rose, but came up with nothing. But maybe she didn’t mean as much to Rose as Rose had meant to her. Because she would have been pretty easy to find if Rose wanted to.

‘So, how have you been for the past 15 years of your life?’ Luisa asked, putting on a smile.

‘You want to know why I didn’t contact you,’ Rose said, seeing straight through Luisa’s feeble smile. Like she always had. A lot had changed in the past decade and a half, but Rose was apparently still able to read Luisa. Luisa wasn’t so sure if the reverse still applied. Rose seemed a lot more confident than the shy, blushing girl she had last seen all those years ago.

‘Yes, no, maybe. You don’t have to explain. It’s just… Why didn’t you?’ She had never been good at hiding her curiosity. And she wanted to know.

‘Miami, doesn’t hold a lot of good memories for me,’ Rose said. Her voice was even but her eyes as had a far off look to them, and Luisa knew she was thinking about her parents. ‘Except you, of course,’ she smiled, turning towards Luisa. ‘But even after boarding school, I didn’t know if I could return here. And I didn’t want to give you false hope. Besides. You would have been 19 by then. You probably wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with me.’

Luisa scoffed, that definitely wasn’t true. She had definitely not been a nice person at 19, but she would have always made room for Rose in her life. ‘It would have been nice to hear something from you after that horrible Sunday.’

‘I cried the whole plane ride to Switzerland,’ Rose admitted. ‘I missed you so much. And my father. And even Derek. But mostly you.’

‘I cried that entire day too,’ Luisa said. ‘I felt like a terrible girlfriend. For not being able to be there for you.’

‘There was nothing you could have done. Elena had arranged everything.’

‘Do you still…’ Luisa didn’t have to finish the sentence.

‘Have contact with Elena? No, not for a long time.’

Luisa nodded, she had no idea what to say to Rose. It was so strange to sit her next to her, and realize that Rose was basically a complete stranger. She knew her, and at the same time she didn’t. It was a strange experience. And it seemed Rose had the same problem.

‘So, I heard you became a doctor,’ Rose offered. ‘I googled you,’ she explained as Luisa tilted her head.

Luisa laughed, it seemed she hadn’t been the only one doing some research. But she had no idea if that meant that Rose had been thinking about her on her own, or was just reminded of her because she was back in Miami. It didn’t really matter either way.   
‘I did. OB/GYN,’ Luisa said proudly. It was one of the things she had achieved she was actually proud of.

‘You always wanted to be a doctor,’ Rose said, smiling fondly.

‘And did you do something with your art?’

‘Apart from the occasional doodles, not really. I’m a lawyer now.’

‘A lawyer? Really?’ Luisa said, not being able to hide her surprise.

‘What? Didn’t think the shy little girl had it in her?’

‘Not at all. Well, a little. But that was a long time ago. You have obviously changed.’ And without meaning to, her eyes darted south of Rose’s eyes, appraising Rose’s very womanly forms. She was definitely attracted to the other woman in a much more physical way than she had been as a teenager.

‘So have you,’ Rose said with a smile, her eyes doing the same trek up Luisa’s body.

They lapsed back into silence, but the air between them was no longer filled with awkwardness. There was a more charged energy between them.

‘There is another reason I didn’t contact you,’ Rose said. ‘I had no idea what to expect. What I wanted to happen. You were the first person I loved. And I guess I was scared for what would happen if I did contact you after all those years. I knew we couldn’t just pick up where we left off. That would be ridiculous. But I guess I had the hope that maybe we could just go try again. And I didn’t want to know it if we couldn’t. If that spark had faded.’

Luisa had listened carefully to Rose speak, and she felt the same way. But she knew that she had never really stopped loving Rose, she had never met another woman, who even came close to Rose.

‘Well, I would say the spark is still there,’ Luisa said, covering Rose’s hand with her own.

Rose smiled, lacing their fingers together on top of the bar. ‘I would say so, too,’ Rose said, softly, her eyes darting down to Luisa’s lips. Luisa doing the same.

‘I did promise to kiss you again like I had on top of the Ferris wheel,’ Luisa said, her voice having dropped to a whisper.

‘I think 15 years is the perfect time to make good on that promise,’ Rose smiled, leaning in closer.

‘Good,’ Luisa husked against Rose’s lips before closing the distance between them.

Kissing a 28-year-old Rose was a very different from kissing a 13-year-old Rose. But it was still just as dizzying, and when Luisa pulled away, she knew she wanted to do that again.

‘You’ve gotten better at that,’ Rose smiled.

‘I had some practice since,’ Luisa grinned. She had to admit it was a little strange to be kissing Rose again after all these years. Strange but good. So why not make use of it?

‘Well, it paid off,’ Rose said, leaning in again to brush her lips against Luisa’s again.

‘I’ve picked up some other tricks over the years,’ Luisa said, hoping she wasn’t pushing Rose to fast. But Rose only smirked back.

‘And what would that be?’

‘Well, we have a lot of things to talk about. Why don’t you come back to my place and I’ll show you?’ Luisa grinned, growing in boldness as Rose grinned at her.

‘I think that sound like a great plan. We definitely have some catching up to do.’

’15 years of it,’ Luisa said, slipping off the barstool and leading Rose out of the bar and towards her apartment.

Luisa had seen a lot of firsts with Rose, first girlfriend, first kiss, firs slow dance. That night they added another first between the two of them. And Luisa couldn’t be upset about the 15-year gap between their last “I love you” and the tangle of sheets they found themselves in. Because she had to admit that if Rose hadn’t left, it would have been very unlikely that they would have ended up here, in her bed. All those years later.

They would probably have broken up sometime soon. Relationships that started that young rarely lasted. But now they were both adults, they had both grown-up and forged their own lives. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t any room for the other in it. Maybe it was actually better this way, that they had met again later in life. Maybe this is what the universe had intended for them all along, maybe the world was finally making it up to them after all the shit it had thrown at them. Maybe this, meeting in a bar in their late twenties was their happy ending. And as Luisa rolled onto her side and watched a sleeping breathe evenly next to her, it did feel like a happy ending.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that was a satisfying ending to this story. 
> 
> I so enjoyed writing it and I couldn't have done it without all your support! So thank you all so much for all the kudos and the comments! They kept me going! For real, I am terrible at finishing multi chapter fics, and the only reason this one is now done is because of you! You have been the greatest audience a writer can ask for!
> 
> Thank you all so much and I hope to see you again on some other fic of mine!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, if you liked it, please leave a comment to tell me so. New AU's are always iffy and I want to know what you think about baby!Rose and baby!Luisa.
> 
> So leave a comment her or come find me on tumblr: [writersblockisabitch](http://www.writersblockisabitch.tumblr.com)
> 
> PS. I haven't picked a day for when I will update this, it won't be Sunday's though, Sunday is You've Got Mail day. I will probably be Friday's. So I'll hopefully see you then!


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